There's Something About Honda
by D.J.F Levesley
Summary: Dead evening arc finished A strange society is attacking world class duelists around Domino, and just before the 3rd KCGP. When Victor sets out NightDuel executives to attack Yugi and the others at Domino High, while Honda, Bakura and Kaiba are kidnapped,
1. Default Chapter

**Chapter I  
It's just the way you look at me**

The Domino High cherry trees were slowly wilting as the new season arrived. Students sat around eating from their finely crafted bento, scraping the last few remnants of rice from the bottom tray. 

Out of these many students was a small group. School was about to end for the day due to teacher training, and they lounged under one of the trees, waiting for the day to end.  
"Jounouchi you idiot! Give me back my Utada Hikaru CD!"  
There was a small scrabble as the brunette girl leaped at the tall blonde, grabbing the CD at the last minute as she toppled to the sheets of pastel pink. Jounouchi chuckled as she pouted.  
"Honestly Anzu, she's not THAT great..." He sighed, slumping down next to a short boy with hair of a vast multitude of colours. He was cleaning the pyramid locket around his neck as he gazed at the duel monsters card placed in his lap. It was Black Magician, a vessel of many memories for the boy, especially of their recent trip to Egypt. Jounouchi spied on his friend for a couple of seconds, and then pulled the ripped and crumpled up letter from his pocket. It was written in pink lipstick, which for the author of the document, wasn't surprising. Mai Valentine was one of the most vein people they'd ever met, but she had a thing for Jounouchi. Anzu and his other friends were worrying he hadn't realised, but he seemed to.  
"She says she's coming back from China with Vivian in only a matter of days." Grinned the boy with the pyramid round his neck as he leaned over, catching the black magician before it fell.  
"Yugi, I need some privacy and quiet!" Snapped Jounouchi.  
"That's rich coming from you."  
"Oh shut up Anzu."  
Anzu glared at the boy. She had to refrain herself from slapping him hard, but somehow she managed to. The final member of the group was lying on the other side of Yugi. Every so often, he turned to look at the tree across from them. He was sure the student beneath it kept watching him. It was unsettling. Never the less, Honda, as that was his name (and also the make of his motorbike) was resting before the day ended.

The student in question that was apparently watching Honda was none other than Ryou Bakura, a student who had arrived only a few years back at the advent of the Duelist Kingdom tournament, hosted by none other than Pegasus J. Crawford. Bakura was following Honda's every movement, trying to spot for another glimpse of the boy's torso from beneath his messy unbuttoned shirt. Bakura had been worried about this at first, until he had spoken with his Egyptian pen pal Malik Ishtar. He had been told that most people went through this phase, and was completely satisfied with that answer. After all, it was the best answer he would get. Bakura was still slightly worried though, but this stopped when he slipped off into another wedding fantasy. He could see it now... chocolate box church, sweet smelling grass, and Honda, arm in arm with he, staring in longing at each other...

Seto Kaiba was normally not one to pry into public affairs. Fine, then maybe he was, but he only did it for everyone's wellbeing (though mainly his.) President of a worldwide success story company (though the subject of killing of step father to take control of it was strictly taboo) and older brother and idol to his sibling Mokuba Kaiba, Seto was also a student in the same year as these students he was heading towards. Yugi Muuto, Anzu Mazaki, Jounouchi Katsuya, Honda Hiroto and Ryou Bakura. He was mainly going to ask for them to partake in the next 'Kaiba Corporation Grand Prix Tournament' but he felt obliged to talk to them. He decided to converse with Bakura first. Always go for the smaller target...

As you can see, Seto liked business analogies.

The strangest thing about arriving beside the pale student was the hint of a hum. He bent down to head height with the sitting pupil.  
The wedding tune?  
Bakura was looking, dreamy eyed, over at the other group, who were currently having a karaoke contest, much to Anzu's annoyance.  
"Bakura..."   
"Tum tum tee tum..."  
Screw the ettiquete...   
"BAKURA!" Roared Seto. Bakura leapt back a couple of inches, and when he saw Seto, he smiled. He hadnt' recognised him for a bit without his stunning designer white leather jacket.  
"Hello Seto. How are you?"  
Bakura grinned happily at remembering how to start a conversation.  
And they wonder why I get angry...   
"Hello Seto? Did you want something?" Asked the now inquisitive student below.  
"Oh... yes. Here, a letter for you..."  
"For me?" Gasped Bakura, grabbing the note that Kaiba now held out for him.  
"Yeah, um, bye..." Said Kaiba, turning on his heel and striding over to Yugi in an arc. Bakura eagerly opened up the letter, and inside was a sparkly note.   
"You are invited to Kaiba Corpotation's Grand Prix Tournament?"

You can also see Kaiba rarely beats around the bush.

" Size 4..." Rasped Haga. Ryuzaki was scribbling down notes as Haga look over the wall at the small group of female students with a set of binoculars. The measurement equipment in the lens closed in on each cleavage and measured it to a tee.  
"Ho ho... It's a shame the program leaves the uniform on..." Sniggered Ryuzaki. Haga kicked him.

Anzu heard a distant click from the school wall.  
What in the world...  
She turned to see the turquoise hair bobbing up and down atop the wall.   
"The little pervert..." She gasped, nudging Yugi, who was dozing off.  
"Wha?"  
"Haga is spying on us!" Cried Anzu. He saw Haga point the binoculars at another group of girls and hear a click.  
"He's doing something to check out the females..." Sighed Honda, obviously not finding this a problem. Seto was approaching slowly as Yugi and Jounouchi leapt up.   
"That's no way to treat a lady!" They gasped, and they raced over the grass, past Kaiba, to find Haga. Seto groaned as he arrived.  
"Why do I always miss them..."

Haga went pale as he saw the two angry faces appear beside them, opening the school gates to see the two of them looking over the wall, Haga balancing on top of Ryuzaki.  
"What do you two think you're doing?" Roared Jounouchi.  
"We're measuring the girl's breasts so we can slowly compile exact replicas of them as screensavers on our computers." Sniggered Ryuzaki. Once again, Haga kicked his accomplice hard, this time making them both topple to the floor.  
"I believe we should sort this out in a gentleman's way!" Snapped Yugi, pulling his duel disk out. Haga did the same as it snapped into place. Ryuzaki sighed, and slowly backed away.  
"He's going to run!"  
Jounouchi chased after Ryuzaki as he sped down the main road. The other two were oblivious, staring at each other as the lifepoints clocked up and they drew their hands.

"Ladies first." Grinned Yugi. Haga sniffed in distain and drew a card.  
"To start this party off, I'll summon Ultimate Insect lv1 from my hand!" Announced Haga. "And then I'll use lvl up to raise it to lv3."   
The small parasite that crawled out of the hologram grew in stature a bit to an erect caterpillar.  
"I'll set one card and end."  
Yugi drew one card and smiled.  
"We'll see who utilises level monsters the best, especially when I summon Silent Magician lv4!"  
A shower of star-shaped lights flew from the ground as the busty female, dressed all in red, appeared from the roadside.  
"Now I'll activate painful choice and select five cards..." Announced Yugi. He finished picking five, and placing them out for Haga to see.  
black Magician of Chaos  
Black Magician  
Monster Reborn  
Sinister Serpent  
Skilled Dark Magician  
"You can keep your sinister serpent."   
"Thanks." Grinned Yugi.  
"Now I activate pot of greed to draw two cards."  
He drew his sixth card with a flamboyant gesture.  
"Now I activate Premature Burial on Black Magician of Chaos." Announced Yugi. The field cracked open and the grand mage burst from the floor.  
"Now I bring back monster reborn to summon Skilled Dark."  
A young mage in a purple cassock appeared.  
"Now I end after setting two cards."  
The two monsters grew. The caterpillar became a gigantic mantis. The magician grew an extra foot and glared menacingly at it's foe.  
"Now for my move, I'll summon pinch hopper and activate eradicating aerosol, summoning insect queen!" Sniggered Weevil. A cloud of green smoke burst out everywhere as a huge arachnid with a feminine face stepped forward from the can that was releasing the smog.  
"Now my queen, destroy his ameteur mage!"  
The creature lurched into action, biting at the wizard. A pinch hopper in Haga's hand blew up to give him the attack's cost.  
"Not so fast! Activate- dark renewal!"   
A gigantic casket opened up to reveal black magician. Skilled dark and Insect Queen disappeared inside the now empty coffin to leave only it's product to remain from the battle.  
"Hmmm... I'll end then!" Snapped Haga. Yugi drew once more and smiled.   
"Now, soul exchange on ultimate insect!"  
"NO!"   
There was an explosion as Haga was thrown back. The insect faded away and Black Magician's girl appeared on the field. Her dress was revealing her thighs, and Weevil blushed.  
"Now, quick attack will allow me to attack with black magician's girl this turn."   
"Oh no..." Sighed Haga.  
"And now for my final card," grinned Yugi, "I activate card of sanctity!"  
A rain of coins merged into cards, spewing off towards the players.   
"Now I remove marshmallon and Skilled Black magician to summon Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the beginning!" Announced Yugi. With a clash of thunder, the monster appeared.  
"Oh no! I have nothing to protect me now I used aerosol!"  
2000, 2500, 2800 and 3000, and let's not forget his Silent Magician!  
"NOW MY MONSTERS, ATTACK HAGA!"  
There was a shudder of energy as Haga was thrown against the wall by the ferocity of the attack. 

Standing at the gate, Seto Kaiba grinned.  
"Yugi will be just fine in my tournament..."


	2. Heartless Doodlebug

Chapter 2  
Heartless Doodlebug 

Jounouchi pounded down the high street after his rival. Neither of them slowed down, but not for the same reason. Rex didn't want be hurt, and that's just what Jounouchi wanted to do.  
"You'll regret ever trying to perv on Anzu kid!" Roared Jounouchi, chasing after Ryuzaki, who threw himself down an alleyway by Kame Game. The tall blonde student leapt towards Ryuzaki, missed him, hit the floor at a speed, and came to rest at the feet of a sullen man.

Before the two duelists stood a sombre looking male, draped in a black toga, revealing a muscular tanned build beneath. Blonde hair draped from around the Stars and stripes bandana that adorned his head.  
"It can't be!"   
"Bandit Keith?"  
Ryuzaki and Jounouchi leapt up, now wary of the famous American duelist. The man above them was looking fierce, holding out a battered duel disk, as if it had burnt, thrown into sea waters, every trial the elements could throw at a duelist.   
There's something different about him...  
Ryuzaki had now drawn his own duel disk. Jounouchi sighed. Kids just can't hold in violent urges...  
"Mr. Katsuya..." Came a blunt voice from behind. Jounouchi turned to see another familiar face. This duelist was also draped in a black toga, allowing his muscular tanned build to be shown. His face was worn away by tough sea weather and his hair was a mess of midnight blue spikes.  
"Mako!" Gasped Jounouchi, recoiling as Mako approached him.  
"We're here to take you to Lord Victor, king of the NightDuel syndicate." They both snapped. Mako now drew a duel disk as he stepped beside Keith. Jounouchi couldn't see Ryuzaki lose to these two. He pulled out his own duel disk.

Mokuba Kaiba was bored of his first year at Domino High. He already knew more than most of his teachers, thanks to his brother being so great. He laid back next to the tree Seto was leaning on, and he giggled.  
"The grass tickles."   
"That's your mobile Mokuba."  
"Oh, right."   
The bright eyed youth pulled the phone, shaped like a Bean Soldier, from his pocket. He flicked open the front cover and checked the number.  
REBECCA HAWKINS- US JUNIOR SENSATION  
Mokuba liked to know why his friends were so great.  
"Hello?"  
He winced at the loud pop music playing on the car stereo over the phone.  
"Hey there Moky. I just found out there are some duelist punks going to Domino. They're an American syndicate that uses strange abilities."  
"Why are they here?"   
"Probably for that grand prix. That's why I'm coming over. We just reached Tokyo."  
"Hope to see you soon Bex."   
The phone hung up as Mokuba looked at his sombre brother.   
Something's up...

Bakura also thought something was up. But it didn't have anything to do with Seto, Rebecca or NightDuel and Victor. It was for the purpose of his own emotions. He felt his cell phone ring and pulled it out, reading who was calling.  
MOKUBA KAIBA  
He pressed the accept button.  
"Hello Mokuba."   
"Hey Bakura. Is something up?"  
"No, why do you ask?" Groaned Bakura as he slumped up the last few stairs to his apartment.  
"It sounds it. Why don't you tell me about it?"   
Bakura thought about it.  
What could a mere KID do?  
"Ok then. It's well... About my love life." Sighed Bakura as he opened the azure door and crept inside.  
"What about it? The girl you fancy turn you down?"  
"No."  
"Have a secret crush?"  
"Sorta."  
"Is it on Anzu?"  
Bakura tried to hold back his disgust at the comment.   
"No, it's not. It's on..."  
He bit his lip. Should he? Hell, what could Mokuba do...  
"Honda."  
There was a short silence. Mokuba said 'oh' very quietly.  
"What do you think?" Asked Bakura, worried.  
"Hmm... Do you want to meet him and tell him?"  
Bakura thought about it again.   
"Sure, why not."  
Mokuba scribbled something down on a notepad. Bakura balanced the phone on the bed as he pulled his shirt off.  
"Ok then. I'll need around 50."  
Bakura forgot Kaiba Corporation used dollars.  
"I don't have that amount at the moment..."  
"Oh well, don't sweat. Just pay me back after the tournament. When you do, we'll get round to business."  
Bakura thought that Mokuba was being surpringly calm about the whole matter. Must be living around Seto... That must harden you up. Or maybe it was being kept around Pegasus for so long. Everyone knew Pegasus 'wasn't linear,' as Mai had put it.  
"Ok... thanks."  
For someone he'd tried to possess, he was being awfully flexible.

Back in the alleyway, the duel began.   
"This shall be individual lifepoints." Stated Keith in a dull drone. Everyone else nodded as they drew their opening hands.   
"My move first." Croaked Ryuzaki. "I summon sinister serpent in attack mode."  
A tiny green reptile emerged from the card.  
"Now I activate ultra evolution pill, to transform it into Black Tyranno. I then set 1 card and end."   
A looming black dinosaur stomped into the duel field. A brown oblong for a set spell appeared.  
My magic jammer will protect us...  
"My move." Stated Bandit Keith.  
"I summon cannon soldier in attack mode and set two cards. I end."   
A deep violet machine formed on the field, along with two more oblongs.  
"Now my move." Stated Jounouchi, drawing in a grand gesture.  
"I'll activate polymerisation on baby dragon and alligator sword to summon baby dragon swordsman." Announced Jounouchi, showing the three cards. Alligator sword and Baby Dragon appeared, one riding the other.  
"Now I activate de-fusion, seperating my two monsters."  
The two monsters leapt off each other and formed into their individual cards.  
"Now I can tribute them both for Red Eyes Black Dragon." Announced Jounouchi. The two creatures faded away to allow a deep black lizard to form, glaring red eyes that glowed among the black armour.  
That's my card...  
Ryuzaki glared at Jounouchi as he smiled and ended.   
"So you both managed to summon big black beasts, huh?" Grinned Mako.  
"Now, I'll summon penguin nightmare in defence and end after setting one card." Announced Mako. The tuxedo-clad bird flapped onto the field, and an oblong appeared behind it.  
"Back to me, huh?" Grinned Ryuzaki. Sinister Serpent returned to his hand.  
"Now I'll activate gilasaurus's special ability to special summon two of them." Announced Ryuzaki, throwing two small dinosaurs onto the field.  
"And thanks to it's secondary effect. We each reborn one card in our cemeteries for all the gilasaurus he summons." Stated Jounouchi, summoning Baby Dragon and alligator sword. Keith and Mako glared. They had no monsters in their cemeteries...  
"Now I'll activate raise body heat on both of my gilsaurus to raise their attacks to 2100."   
The two small reptiles grew until they were almost as big as black tyranno.  
"Now, my gilasaurus can destroy your nightmare penguin and cannon soldier."  
The two dinosaurs threw themselves at the nightmare penguin and cannon soldier. The penguin shattered, but a swarm of female priestesses leapt in the way of the second.  
"Not so fast." Grinned Bandit Keith, holding up Waboku.  
"No matter, I'll set one monster and end." Announced Ryuzaki. He now had no hand.  
"Time to heat things up a bit." Grinned Keith. Drawing another card, a gigantic throne appeared behind him. Jounouchi recoiled back, as did Ryuzaki, to find their way blocked by a series of diamonds protruding from the ground.  
"Prepare to meet Victor, fools!"

Two large violet urns formed from the ground, groaning with the bubbling acid inside. Two mechanical chasers fell into the pots, burning away with an acidic hiss.  
"This will allow me to summon my Zera the Mant!" Roared Keith, throwing down his monster. The acid spilled over, and began to form into a solid being of cobalt blue.  
The ultimate ritual demon.  
"Now Zera, destroy Ryuzaki's pitiful Tyranno!" Announced Keith, pointing in the direction of the tyrannic beast. With a enormous swipe, the dinosaur faded away.  
Rex: 3800   
Jounouchi: 4000  
Mako: 4000  
Keith: 4000  
"Now my cannon soldier will attack Baby Dragon!"  
Keith whisked round to see his machine destroy the child reptile.  
Jounouchi: 3800  
"I set one monster, and then flip my second face down!" Announced the toga-clad American, throwing his arm up after pressing the button. Two men were holding jars to the sky as coins rained down.   
"My 'gifts of heaven' spell card allows us to draw until all of our hands have six cards in."  
Each person drew until their hands were fully replenished.

Victor, the boss of NightDuel, was drumming his fingers on the metal throne. Around him, young women worked to figure out how to build pefect decks through online forums. On a tier above them, more young people, this time men, were reporting on duel status for members of the syndicate. Victor turned to see one of these men rush in across the gangway to the open-air lounge Victor occupied.  
"Yes No. 321?"   
"Bandit Keith and Mako Tsunami are winning sir. Keith's field is currently Zera the Mant and Cannon soldier with six cards in hand. Mako has one card set and six cards in hand. Their opponents, Jounouchi Katsuya and Ryuzaki have a Red eyes black dragon and wyvern warrior along with two gilasaurus equipped with raise body heat respectively. Both or their lp totals are 3800, while Keith and Mako have 4000 a piece."  
Victor nodded and beckoned for No. 321 to leave, which he did promptly. Victor sighed and turned back to the main monitor. A little phone symbol had now appeared in the left corner. Pressing the phone shaped icon on the left arm of his seat, a blurry picture appeared. The picture was of a middle aged man, dressed in a burgundy pin-stripe business suit with frill cuffs, and with long straightened grey locks with made him look older than he really was.  
"Hello Mr. Crawford."  
"Good morning Victor!" Cooed Pegasus.  
"Please get to the point sir..." Groaned Victor.  
"Oh c'mon, aren't you feeling peachy and perky this morning? Where's the l-"  
"JUST TELL ME WHY YOU'RE CONTACTING ME!" Roared the now tense man at the image on the screen. Pegasus looked taken aback, brushed back his curtain of hair that hid his eyepatch, and began.  
"Apparently, Seto Kaiba is holding a tournament around Domino, which will reach a climax when the 8 first players to succeed getting 7 strange cards will manage to catch an zeppelin at the blue eyes dome."   
"That's some interesting information to add to the Kaiba Corporation Grand Prix database... and what exactly are these 7 cards?"  
Pegasus shuffled round off camera and picked up seven clear tablets of plastic, roughly the dimensions of a duel monster card. Each one had a single golden image imprinted on it, which differed on each, and that picture was of...  
"A sennen item?" Gasped Victor.  
"Indeed. Seto has decided to use the sennen items as the designs for his cards. They're basically thick card sleeves with a symbol on. When you win a card through the ante it is put into the card you win as part of the duel."   
Victor grinned.  
"Any more information?"  
"Indeed there is Victor boy!"  
Pegasus shuffled off screen to gather something up, and then sat down again at the phone's camera end.  
"I have recently received deck lists from him as a bribe to be able to use the duel monster cards I created. Obviously, I'd love to send you the deck lists but..."  
"But what?" Snapped Victor, now tense.  
"What good would they be to you? Do you know how to PLAY duel monsters?"  
"I run a duelling society. I wouldn't be a leader without the knowledge of the game." Spat Victor in a mixture of his ego and anger.  
"Very well. I'll fax the deck lists. I hope your members will be participating Victor boy?"  
Victor nodded and disconnected before Pegasus could crack a joke.  
Victor looked around him at his society. His idea. His plan.  
Perfect...

Jounouchi drew his seventh card.   
Time to end this...  
"I tribute my wyvern warrior for my cyber tech alligator!"  
Mako sniggered.  
"Activate face down, torrential tribute!"  
There was a surge of water, and all the monsters on the field disappeared in a torrent of liquid.   
"I set two face downs and end..." Groaned Jounouchi.   
"I draw." Announced Mako, smiling.  
"I activate terraforming to bring out A legendary ocean!"  
There was an earth shattering roar, and the field burst open, revealing gigantic structures emerging from the earth. A watery layer rushed over everyone, and the diamond rim of the arena, kept the water in.  
"Now I set 2 cards and summon giga gagagigo."  
A gigantic aquatic beast rose from the depths with an attack of 2650.  
"How did you summon a 5 star monster without a tribute?" Gasped Jounouchi, recoiling.  
"The effect of A legendary ocean not only boosts my beast's attack, but lowers it's level by one." Lectured Mako, and then he pointed at Jounouchi.  
"Now my leviathan, attack him directly"  
Jounouchi roared as he was thrown back against the diamond rim with a thud.  
Jounouchi: 1150 lp  
"I end."  
Ryuzaki drew.  
"I activate reptilian roar!" Announced Ryuzaki. An image of a dinosaur roaring at a kuriboh appeared and then shattered.  
"For the cost of one reptile from my hand, I can move one monster into defence mode with a lower attack."  
Ryuzaki threw a card into his graveyard and saw the machine covered lizard change position.  
"Now I activate my monster reborn and chain with my own serial spell." Announced Ryuzaki with a wry grin.  
"Now I can revive two monsters from my cemetery, and my gogiga gagagigo I just discarded AND my black tyranno will work well."  
The black dinosaur and a mechanical lizard with glowing crimson eyes emerged on the field.   
"Thanks to your field card, my own reptile gains a power boost," grinned Ryuzaki as the attack increased, "But I won't be allowing you to keep it, using Mystical Spac Typhoon to kill it!"  
A vortex wrapped around the underwater metropolis, making it crumble to the ground in an avalanche of rubble and water.   
"Activate my two face downs!" Announced Mako. Two rings appeared, one strapping round the lizard's neck and the other attaching round the dinosaur's leg.  
"My destruction ring will first of all kill your Black Tyranno, doing 1000 damage to us all."  
The black dinosaur gasped, but before any more emotion could be let through, it blew up, everyone's lp dropping.  
Jounouchi: 150  
Ryuzaki: 2800  
Mako: 3000  
Keith: 3000  
"Now, my second card, Ring of Destruction, attaches to your gogiga, and with a base attack of 2950, You're going to lose!" Grinned Mako. Ryuzaki and the now badly shaken Jounouchi backed away from the centre of the arena where the reptile had now shuffled over to, and with a roaring explosion, all four of them were thrown against the crystal walls, and with a shattering blast, Jounouchi and Ryuzaki collapsed as the other two managed to stand up.  
Jounouchi: 0   
Ryuzaki: 0  
Mako: 50  
Keith: 50

"This love has taken its toll on me..."  
Otogi strummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove down the highway. Rebecca and Prof. Hawkins were tired of hearing him try and sing...  
"Maybe we should have the radio off..." Groaned Prof. Hawkins, running a gnarles hand through his hair. Otogi took the hint and switched it off.  
"When will we be getting there?" Asked Rebecca, flicking through her deck. She gazed at the beauty of her monsters.   
"In about two hours." Chuckled Otogi.

Around half an hour ahead of them, Mai Valentine was escorting Amelda, Varon, Raphael to Domino. The three musketeers were crammed together in the back.  
"How long now..." Groaned Amelda, as Raphael's muscular form pushed against him.  
"About an hour." Snapped Mai, fed up of their whining. Varon chuckled and turned back to look at the ocean ahead. Being free of the Orichalcos was such a great feeling...

Yugi, Honda and Anzu were all walking home after waiting for Haga to wake up from the duel.  
"Where's Shizuka been recently?" Asked Yugi, looking to Honda, who he suspected would know. As usual, at the mention of the girl's name, he blushed.  
"She's gone to Domino Hospital for a check-up. She'll be at the plaza this evening."  
Anzu was looking at something in her hands. Yugi peered over to see her deck.  
"Anzu..."   
Anzu shrieked and almost dropped her cards.  
"Why are you looking at your deck?" Asked Yugi. Anzu looked at Honda.  
"Both of us also got invites to the grand prix when you left to duel Haga."   
Yugi had received his invite from Kaiba a little later, and was surprised to see two of his friends had been invited to.  
"So, what decks exactly are you running?"  
Anzu and Honda smiled.   
"You'll find out when we get there." They both said. 

Mokuba kicked the soda can onto the curb, where a large truck crushed it beneath the heavy wheels. Bakura looked at the vast dark juggernaut with a look of awe.  
"How do you know you fancy Honda?" Asked Mokuba, slightly unnerved by the prospect. Before Bakura could answer, Mokuba turned back to him.  
"And why did you tell me, of all people?"  
"I don't really know why I fancy Honda... It just sort of... happened... when we were in Egypt. When I possessed him to duel Yugi... That was when I truly felt whole."  
Mokuba looked at Bakura, who's eyes had glazed over.   
"You're a really soppy preteen." He said, covering his mouth after realising what he said. Bakura giggled.  
"I don't know why. When I first met Isis, I talked to Malik and he said when I felt then was love. Then I felt in control. But around Honda, I just sort of, melt. You and Honda know me the best, after all, when we first met each time, we've connected through our spirits, as if our very personas were linked. The three of us have a link no one else has. We are the three who are connected through the sennen ring."   
Mokuba thought about this. Now that Bakura mentioned it, they were the only people to have been there when Bakura tried to use Mokuba as a new vessel. When he had tried, part of their spirits had been connected, like when Bakura had sealed a bit of himself into the puzzle before being removed...  
"Maybe we should talk about this out of the public eye." Mentioned Mokuba, beckoning towards an alleyway at the side. The two wondered down.  
"I should be able to help set up something... if you get to the final 8."   
Bakura smiled and thanked his friend. He stumbled on something heavy, and fell over. He looked up at Mokuba, who was pale with horror.  
"Don't worry, I just fell over. I'm not that weak..."  
But then he realised Mokuba didn't mean him falling over. It was what he had fallen over that worried him. For their was the unconscious form of Jounouchi Katsuya and Ryuzaki...

Victor saw the two duelists he heard about. They had recently just been defeated by Keith and Mako. As he looked round the edge of the wall, he saw two boys looking over the bodies. One was pale, and was checking for pulses, while the other, with long black hair, was frantically searching for something.  
That's Mokuba Kaiba...  
He turned into the alley and saw the other person who was looking. Ryou Bakura... He knew exactly what to do.  
"What are you two looking for?" Asked Victor, intruding on their two man rescue.   
"The person who did this!" Announded Bakura.  
"Say, aren't you that Ryou Bakura kid?" Asked Victor, trying to sound amazed.  
"Yes, how did you know?" Asked Ryou, looking up at the man.  
"Oh, EVERYONE knows who was on battle ship at Battle City. It was a big thing. Have you been invited to the new tournament?"  
"Yes, so what if I have?" Snapped Bakura.  
"You may need this..." Grinned Victor, and he pulled something out of his coat. Bakura gasped as he gazed at it.   
"That's right... the sennen ring."  
Victor had to hold in the laughter as Bakura held his mesmeric gaze on the ring. In fact, it wasn't the real ring. No one could get into the temple where it was held. But for the purpose of what he needed, this would act nicely, especially when he put it on.  
"Here, take it." Victor said, passing the pendant to Bakura. Snapping it up, the pale boy placed it around his neck. As he was about to finish placing it on, there was a electric shock sound as Bakura cried out. The ring was now glowing with an electric energy, some of the needles digging into the boy's chest. He threw the ring off, gasping for air.  
Help me...  
Bakura collapsed in a storm of red and black vision.   
Mokuba looked at the unconscious form of Bakura.  
"What did you do to him?"  
"I merely put a little device into this fake sennen ring of mine." Sniggered Victor, holding up the now bloody fake ring, smashing it with his foot on the ground below.   
"Why are you doing this?" Cried Mokuba, seeing the three bodies on the floor and going a little bit green.  
"Because I have plans... plans for your brother's tournament. Now tell me, where are the god cards?"  
"You'll have to duel me to find anything out!" Snapped the child, pulling out his duel disk and entering his deck into the slot. Victor shot a sour grin at the adolescent, grabbing his own deck and placing it into the duel disk. 

Seto always liked to have a walk after a stressful day. His brother Mokuba had been crabby all day, and he'd found out everyone was coming for the tournament announcement that night. The main street may seem busy, but for him, it was peaceful.  
Until he heard a scream that was remarkably like his brother's.  
Running to the nearest alleyway, he saw a tall, tanned, bald man walking away from the bloody form of Mokuba.  
"What did you do to my brother?"  
Kaiba grabbed the man's shoulder, and he wheeled round, grinning at Seto.  
"Your brother tried to meddle in my plans."  
"But why did you hurt him like that?"  
"My demons need blood to keep then satiated..." Sniggered Victor, walking off down the road.

Victor was particularly happy. He had just managed to get hold of four new decks...

Kaiba saw the seperate bodies lying on the floor.  
Katsuya...  
Kaiba pulled out his cell phone and selected the number.  
MUUTO YUGI- DUELIST KING

Honda and Anzu watched as Yugi finished talking.   
"That was Kaiba on the phone... He's found Jounouchi and Ryuzaki."  
The two of them smiled.  
"But they were with Bakura and Mokuba... all of them bloodied up."  
Their looks of ecstasy faded to the exact opposite.  
The sound of two cars screeching to a halt beside them woke them out of their solemn trance. Haga had now began to get up, and slowly back away from the others. Mai, Raphael, Varon, Amelda, Rebecca, Otogi, Shizuka and Prof. Hawkins stepped out of the cars.  
"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" Sighed Yugi, trying to hold in his grief.  
"We came for the tournament briefing at the Domino Plaza. It's happening in about three hours." Explained Otogi, trying to work his way over to Shizuka, who promptly moved over to Mai, who gave a cold glare in the direction of Otogi.

"Is something wrong Yugi?" Asked Rebecca.  
Please don't say he's lost his soul...   
"Jounouchi, Bakura, Mokuba and Ryuzaki were found -deckless- in an alleyway off the main high street." Sighed Honda.  
"Isn't that in the direction of the plaza? We can check up on them on the way." Stated Varon. Yugi nodded, now slightly reassured, and they wondered off towards the plaza.


	3. Do you want Karma with that?

Chapter 3  
Do you want karma with that?

The group had now burst into a run, Rebecca staying towards the back to help Prof. Hawkins. Yugi, Honda and Anzu were at the front, pounding the ground as they chased over to the alleyway. Otogi followed Honda, Anzu and Yugi into the passageway as the others waited. Stampeding past bins and cardboard boxes, each worried for everyone who had been found, they arrived where Seto was with a skidding halt.  
"Why aren't the police here?" Asked Anzu, wondering why they hadn't seen anyone like them.  
"Apparently, Victor has called them to escort him to the plaza for the meeting. None of the other members can come down to help us due to major buglaries and the like." Spat Kaiba, aimed more at Victor and the police than Anzu.  
"Who's this Victor guy?" Asked Yugi, intrigued.  
"I'm sure Otogi can explain."  
"I sure can Kaiba. Victor is another of those big entrepeneurs of the duelling industry. Like Pegasus pioneered the card game, Kaiba created the virtual systems, I created dungeon dice monsters and Dartz owned Paradise, Victor owns a syndicate of duelists who are the 'Opus Dei' of the duelling world." 

Author's Note: For those who decided not to read Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei are a society of devote Catholics who are being debated over by the Vatican etc. due to rumours of brain washing and 'corporal mortification.' Just thought I'd put a cameo in there... 

Yugi and Anzu looked at each other with a worried expression. Honda was checking each limp form.  
"They're decks are gone!"   
"What did I tell Yugi down the phone?"  
Honda glared at Seto for being so smug.  
"And... oh my god!"  
After looking at the bruised and cut forms of Jounouchi, Ryuzaki and Mokuba, he came to Bakura, seeing the holes in his school jumper where the needles of the fake sennen ring had pierced his chest.   
Yugi and Anzu gasped in shock, Otogi held in the bile now building in his throat, and Seto merely shrugged it off, angry Honda wasn't particularly interested in Mokuba.  
"Bakura needs to be taken to a hospital right away!" Roared Honda, holding the limp form in his arms. Before Seto could argue, Honda had run out of the alley to the group. Mai stood in front of him, looking at the bloody form of Bakura and the frightened Honda.  
"Honda, wha-"  
"No time. We need to take Bakura to the hospital."  
Mai recoiled. She wanted to know how Jounouchi was before she did anything.  
"I'll take him." Came a shaky voice from behind Honda.  
Honda turned to see Prof. Hawkins opening the door to Otogi's car as Rebecca unhinged the caravan. Rebecca and Prof. Hawkins leapt into the front seats, while Honda careful placed Bakura across the back set of seats, and he perched in the last chair left. The azure cadillac roared into action, speeding down the main road to the east of the plaza.  
Hurry back...  
Mai looked at the others, and remembering Jounouchi, hurried down the alley Honda had come from.

Yugi, Anzu and Otogi saw Mai run down as fast as she could. Seto was already dialling the number for an ambulance, crouching beside Mokuba as she leapt over to see Jounouchi. She gingerly felt his cheek.  
Ice cold...  
She brushed a couple of blonde locks from over her ear and placed it to his chest.  
His heart is still going...  
She checked his pocket. That's where he always keeps his deck.  
All she fished out was a cell phone. She checked his other pocket. Nothing. Then his shirt pocket. Still nothing. There was nowhere else he could be keeping his deck.  
"Yeah, they took his deck..." Sighed Seto as Mai looked at him.  
"They took all their decks..."   
Mai turned to Yugi, who had just spoken.  
"Then how are they going to play in the tournament?" She asked, now worried.   
"I know my grandpa has some spare decks we could borrow..." Thought Yugi. Mai brightened up.  
"Right then." Snapped Seto, picking up Mokuba and slinging him over his shoulder, and reluctantly picking up Ryuzaki and Jounouchi.  
"They'll be coming back to the house. I have a group of matrons there who can care for the injuries. Plus, I need to make the announcement..."   
The others watched as Seto stumbled away down the corner of the road, dropped Jounouchi's limp form, and dragged out his cell phone to call for a company car. It came in a matter of minutes, and they were off to Seto's mansion. Yugi, Anzu, Mai and Otogi walked over to the musketeers who were watching.  
"Should we get going to the plaza now? It's about a half hour walk there..." Said Anzu, trying to break the ice. The others agreed and followed the gang down to the plaza, rather reluctantly.

Seto dragged the last body of Ryuzaki out of the car. Jounouchi and Mokuba were already down in the infirmary, and a final doctor carried the last form away. Kaiba ran into the building as soon as everyone had dispersed, and made his way to the video phone room.

Honda carried in the quivering form of Bakura. The pale boy was beginning to shudder and moan, and Honda was now trying to break into a run, but failing. Prof. Hawkins and Rebecca were in front of him, with a nurse before them, who beckoned the group into a spare room.  
"Thanks." Mumbled Honda.  
They laid down Bakura's injured body on the hospital bed, and saw the doctors walk over. Rebecca whispered something to her grandfather, who nodded. Rebecca looked at Honda, grabbed his arm, and lead them out of the room into the corridor.  
"Where are we going?"  
"To Shizuka's room. Sugoroku is there watching over her."  
At the mention of Shizuka, Honda leapt at the chance. But still, that brooding feeling of Bakura's pain was still with him. Somehow, it hurt him, deep down.

Eventually, the two of them made their way down peppermint green corridor into a sterile white passageway. Seeing the first door on the left, Rebecca asked Honda to translate the names on the door before they went in.   
"Hey there Honda."  
He couldn't help but blush as Shizuka waved at him, albeit weakly.  
"Honda, what are you doing here? Why aren't you at the plaza?" Asked Sugoroku. Rebecca butted in with the story so far, and the aged man nodded sagely.  
"So Bakura, Ryuzaki, Mokuba and Jounouchi have lost their decks to whoever did this to them?"  
"That's right." Answered Rebbeca. "Yugi said you may have some spare decks for them."  
"I may do. What precisely were their themes?" Asked Sugoroku, checking the bulks in his dungaree pocket.  
"Well, you know Jounouchi ran beatdown with luck, Mokuba ran a rich deck, can't remember what, Ryuzaki ran dinosaur and reptile, and Bakura ran occult."  
Sugoroku nodded and picked out for deck boxes. Each one was golden in colour with the deck theme scribbled on top.  
"I built Yugi's deck. You can trust my deck." Grinned Sugoroku. Rebecca thanked him and scurried out to check on Bakura as Honda sat down next to Yugi's grandfather.  
"So, how are you Shizuka?"  
"Great! Kaiba came to see me this morning, and Mr. Mutou here, to give us invites to the grand prix."  
Honda wasn't really shocked. After everything that had happened today, he really couldn't be surprised by anything.  
"That's cool Shizuka."  
"The hospital is going to be broadcasting the tournament in the rooms of invited duelists to show them what teams they'll be on."  
"TEAMS?" Gasped Honda, now shocked. He stood up, looking at Shizuka.  
"Didn't you know? Everyone is being put in teams of 3 based on relationship and skill."  
Honda was still shocked. He was hoping more than anything he wasn't put on a team with Otogi or Yugi…  
A nurse wondered in and waved at Shizuka.  
"Visitors must leave now. Shizuka is having a test quickly before the plaza meeting is shown."   
Honda nodded. He assumed this would be happening everywhere, and as he wondered back with Sugoroku, he saw that Rebecca and Prof. Hawkins had also been ushered out. As the two grandparents caught up on old times, Honda looked down at Rebecca who was striding along with a brave look on her pale face.  
I can't believe we dragged Rebecca into this…  
He brushed the feeling away as they got into the car and drove off towards the plaza.

As the car set off, the others had arrived. Mai looked around nervously at the crowd, and ran over to Vivian to chat. She needed to get her mind off the night's events…  
"We should go and mingle." Said Varon, Amelda and Raphael agreeing as they scurried off into a crowd of rowdy drunk duelists. Otogi, Anzu and Yugi merely walked over to some familiar faces. One was a young woman with straight black hair and beautiful almond eyes, dressed in a long robe that was tied with elegant golden belts. Her hair was filled with little sets of beads that flowed like a cascade of colour among the onyx, a contrast of her pale clothing. Beside her was a young teenage boy, with sandy blonde hair that reached halfway down his back. He nervously played with his leather jacket which sat upon his pale lavender shirt, black trousers flowing down from his waist to his feet, where he wore plain sandals. In the corner, tending to the boy's motorbike, was a bald man in a blue lumberjack shirt and denim jeans, a strange series of hieroglyphs running down his left cheek. His only hair was a ponytail that seems to have been formed out of nowhere.  
"Hi Isis."   
Anzu grinned as the two girls caught up on old times. Honda walked over to the motorbike and the person who was looking after it, Rishid. Yugi went over to the boy, Malik, and they greeted each other.  
"How's life?"  
"Difficult. Adapting from leaving the tomb and all…" Laughed Malik. Yugi was shocked by how good natured he was. But then again, the last few memories he had of him was roaring at him to die during a duel at Alcatraz, Seto's expensive tower of duelling built above the ruins of his father's military production works. He had caught a glimpse of Malik after they'd left the Memory World, but they hadn't really talked. The three of them had been getting on a ferry, and had little time to talk to Yugi at the time.

As everyone chatted about duelling, love lives and ancient Egyptian magic, they didn't notice the group of people in purple togas in the corner. Each one of them scanned the crowd with Victor's specially prepared binoculars, which used a similar technology to the breast measurers Haga and Ryuzaki had been using that afternoon. Each one of them was checking the deck lists of each person in the plaza, checking for anything worth stealing. They stopped abruptly as the main LCD screen on the large shopping centre by the fountain whirred into life, showing Seto Kaiba staring at the crowd. Everyone gasped and turned round to see it. Everyone except for people who qualified for Battle City that is, due to the fact they'd already seen it…

"Welcome, duelists of the world. This is the third Kaiba Corporation grand prix, the first two of which were won by Yugi Mutou, the Duelist King. In this tournament, each person has to collect seven key cards."  
At this, simulations of the card floated across the screen, each with the sennen items imprinted on them. Yugi clasped the pyramid around his neck. He had yet to use it, but this tournament may see it coming back to use all over again…

"When you win a card through the ante rule, which battle city fans will be aware of, they shall be placed in the key card you won, as it shall act as a card sleeve. Therefore, we have evidence that you both played by ante AND that you collected all seven. Other key cards can be gained by betting them on duels. Each of you will have two cards handed to you."  
Yugi saw the bodyguards come over to the group. Yugi was handed the puzzle and ring cards, Malik got handed the rod and eye cards, and Isis got handed the Tauk and ankh cards.  
Kaiba was always one for irony…  
"Now for the second bit of important information. You shall each be split up into teams of 3. Eight of these teams will go through to a tournament at blue eyes dome, where each team will be pitted against random other teams and even their own members. Once this happens, the eight people who make it past a Swiss round will progress on to the next challenge. I don't want to spoil too much of the fun…"  
Everyone looked around nervously.   
"The players who received golden invites will be sorted by me. Will people who received silver and bronze invites split into two separate groups here, where my brother will sort you out. The rest of you come in to the mall. I will sort you out in here."  
Malik, Rishid and Isis followed in the others who remembered each other from various Kaiba Tournaments. The people in togas followed after, grinning at their gold rimmed invites.  
The main Domino Mall was a multiple tiered building made of glass and iron. It had a disturbing resemblance to Alcatraz for most of them, while for Yugi, he gulped as he remembered his duel atop the building with two of the GURU members that Malik had hired to kill them, in a tag team with Seto Kaiba. He heard two whispers and a moan and turned to see two of the people in togas. They stopped talking and marched in front of Yugi, who looked at them in an inquisitive manner, before forgetting about it and following everyone along to the dais where the host was waiting.

Another image of Seto Kaiba was there where the other one had switched off outside. Yugi saw Haga cower in a corner, and noticed Jounouchi, Bakura and Ryuzaki still hadn't recovered. Just then, the door burst open as a bodyguard lead Honda, Prof. Hawkins, Rebecca and Sugoroku into the building. Yugi's grandfather smiled at Yugi as the bodyguard left.  
"You should all be happy to know all 36 of you received golden invites. This means that 12 teams will be made from all of you together. The listings have been shuffled up, and we shall now give the computer's decision to you."   
Another gigantic screen lowered from the ceiling behind them. Anzu nudged Yugi to turn round to see it. A calm female voice spoke to them.  
"This is the 'Team decision' program. Please be quiet as your team groups appear and I mention the names to go with the faces."  
Everyone stood around the screen, waiting to see who they would be paired with.  
"Team one. Please step forward when I mention your name."  
The 30 duelists were now tense. Three cards flashed on screen, and then span round to reveal faces. The computer then mentioned the names.  
"Yugi Mutou, Anzu Mazaki and Katsuya Jounouchi."  
Anzu and Yugi stepped forward. The computer then paused.  
"According to my information. Jounouchi is absent."  
Yugi and Anzu nodded, not sure why, as the computer obviously couldn't see them.  
"Please go back for the next team to come."  
The two of them stepped back to allow the next team to come forward.  
"Team two."  
Everyone went silent again.  
"Team two will consist of Hiroto Honda, Otogi Riuuji and Katsuya Shizuka."  
After the computer confirmed that Shizuka was still in hospital, they stepped back for the next team. Honda and Otogi glared at each other. Once again, they would be competing as a team with Shizuka. However, this time, Honda didn't feel up to fighting over Shizuka and averted his gaze.  
"Team three. Team three will consist of Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba and Rebecca Hawkins."   
Rebecca beamed as she learnt she would be with Seto. The computer didn't bother to ask where the creators of the program were. It just whirred into creating another team of card images.  
"Team four."  
The five duelists already named walked over to where the screen on the podium was. The other 25 duelists were all ready.  
"To speed things up, the teams shall be mentioned straight off. Merely allocate yourself an area away from the rest of the waiting duelists to prepare team strategies for the tournament."  
Everyone nodded for no real reason again.  
"Team four will consist of Siegfried and Leon Von Schrieder, along with Espa Roba."  
The two brothers giggled and shook hands. Espa and his brothers walked over and joined in the conversation, although the siblings were slightly hostile. The three of them (and Espa's many brothers) walked over to where Yugi and the others were.  
"Team five. Ream five will consist of Mai Valentine (Author's Note: I hate her sub name) Isis Ishtar and Vivian Wong."  
Mai and Vivian clasped hands and started dancing. Isis walked over and Vivian instantly took to her tanned skin. Isis, although mature, suddenly got swept up in the feminine conversation, and each of them began discussing hair. Malik looked on. After all, she'd rarely been around other women. He smiled and turned back to Rishid. By the time he had stopped listening to the girls, Varon, Amelda and Raphael had been sorted into team six. They swaggered over to the others, while Vivian and Mai started looking at Isis's long black locks.  
"Team seven consists of Ryuzaki, Haga and Ghoul."   
Haga looked around for who the computer mentioned, and saw a tall pasty man, dressed in a toga. Haga screamed as he hid inside the crowd of Yugi and the others. Anzu turned to see the strange looking man, with sunken in eyes and grizzly matted hair. She patted Yugi on the shoulder, who had just been chatting with Otogi.  
"You…" Groaned Yugi.  
"Remember me kid? You duelled me and my Exodia deck back in the first of these shindigs."  
Yugi turned from him as Ghoul walked back over to a corner to wait for the other people in robes to come over.  
"Somehow, these people in robes don't particularly look friendly…" Groaned Anzu.  
"Do you think these could be the people who hurt Bakura and the others?"  
Yugi and Anzu turned to Honda.  
"Maybe, they are mainly consisting of people we recognise from the GURU syndicate…"  
Neon lights were shrouding the dark sky outside. Most of the crowd had been dispersed into teams, and each of them were trading, chatting and discussing their strategies. Yugi smiled, wishing he could still play the game in such a fun way…  
Yugi noticed two more faces through the gang of purple toga wearing people. They were now talking to Ghoul, along with a tall, bald man.  
"That's Victor!" Gasped Otogi.  
"Don't jump to conclusions. He's just been put on those two people's team…"  
Otogi glared at Anzu.  
"Stop treating everyone as innocent people. He's probably been sorted there for a reason with…"  
"Keith Howard and Mako Tsunami (Author's Note: I also hate his sub name)?"  
Anzu gasped at what Yugi had just said.  
"It can't be…"  
Yugi nodded. He was wondering why Keith was always swept up in these mad conspiracies…  
"Oh god no!" Roared a sonorous voice from across the hall. Rebecca gasped as they saw who another one in the purple togas was. He was cowering from Malik and Rishid.  
Another team, huh?  
"That's Umbra!" Roared Anzu, almost ready to smack him across the face. "He and that Lumis jerk were the people who trapped me and Jounouchi in the warehouse!"  
"And duelled me and Kaiba atop this shopping centre."  
Yugi remembered that only he, Kaiba and Mokuba knew about that match. Jounouchi and Anzu, having been found out to be friends of Yugi, had been kidnapped by GURU members and possessed by Malik's sennen rod. Anzu was later found strapped to a chair with a crate hung above her head, while Jounouchi took the puzzle and tried to kill Yugi by dragging him into the ocean.  
"Team ten. Team ten will consist of Pandora, Lumis and Catherine."  
Yugi turned at the names. Lumis looked despairingly at Umbra. Both of them were in purple togas, as was Pandora, who Yugi recognised for the harlequin face mask he wore. The woman's name rang a bell, but he couldn't remember where. Her hair was long and gold, her skin pasty white, her clothing silver stockings coming from her knee high white boots, a short white dress topping off the outfit. Pandora put his arm around her pinched in waist, pulling her close as they walked over to the bunch of others in purple cloaks. Yugi watched the girl intently who didn't seem to say or do anything.  
Could it be?  
He shrugged the feeling off and waited for the next team to be announced. Only six people were left.  
"Team eleven. Team eleven will consist of Sugoroku Mutou, Arthur Hawkins and Mind Doll."  
The two elderly gentlemen clapped their hands together when they learnt they were on the same team. A pale, scraggly person in a purple toga walked over to them. He didn't speak. He merely looked at them with a bored expression, and shuffled over to the sinister group. Catherine and Victor stood out like sore thumbs among the group. Amelda and Raphael were watching as Varon flirted with Mai in the absence of Jounouchi. Yugi was chatting with the others, wondering whether or not this tournament would be as violent as the first Battle City or as skilled as the second grand prix. Anzu was looking nervously into the street, hoping Jounouchi would struggle in, like he'd done art Alcatraz, when after he had been assumed dead, had wandered up the tower to help Yugi. She dismissed this as a wild fantasy, remembering how bruised and battered he had been, and turned back to see the last three organised into a team.  
"Team twelve. Team twelve will consist of Bonz, Panik and Ryou Bakura."  
A man that Yugi was shocked to have not noticed emerged from the shadows, dressed in a black over coat and white shirt and trousers beneath. His face was scarred and sinister, and creeping out from behind him was a boy with a similar face to Ghoul, but dressed in pale shorts and a crimson T-shirt, appeared behind him.  
Poor Bakura…  
The computer shut off, and the image on the chair reformed.  
"When the klaxon plays, you may start. When you received your invite you will also have received the tournament rule book. I hope all of you understand what to do."  
No one replied, knowing it was rhetorical. Kaiba obviously just wanted elite players here.  
"This system will now close. I have broadcast this message to everyone. I wish you the best of luck."  
He nodded, and switched off the camera link. Mai and Vivian walked over to the others.  
"That guy has an ego larger than that image was…" Groaned Vivian. Anzu giggled.  
"I was wondering… if this is supposed to be a huge tournament for money and fame then it would make sense for Peg-"  
"Hey there, Yugi boy!"  
Yugi leapt and turned around to see the flamboyant man that was Pegasus J. Crawford grin in a broad smile.  
"I hope to see you doing well in this tournament?"  
Yugi nodded, scared of the man that had tried to kill him through mental stress. He then remembered how friendly Pegasus had been towards him when they the billionaire had tried to slice him open at Paradise.  
"Pegasus? Have you been paired up? You weren't with the other invites."   
"Oh yes, I got paired up BEFORE the rest of you. For security reasons, I'm sure you understand… Yes, I got paired with some new top ranking duelists. Pierre LeBlanc and some girl… Ushebti Papyrus, that's the one!" He said, clicking his fingers as the right name came to him. "Egyptian lass, very friendly, and almost as gorgeous as this fine Egyptian dame right here."  
Pegasus had now leapt over to the side of Isis, who was now trying to restrain herself from smacking him as he began squeezing her wrist. Before Malik could start stabbing someone who happened to be incredibly wealthy and chatting up an ex-madman's sister, Anzu changed topic.   
"Pegasus, how come you're here? I thought you were dead through the pain of having your eye ripped out…"  
"Didn't you see me at Industrial Illusions? That hologram was just before my duel with Mai! How could you possibly think I could die. It was merely an illusion to get you all to feel sorrow for me."  
He turned to see Mai and gave her an ice cold glare from his single eye. She gazed back at him, and they both eventually stopped.  
They all jumped at the sound of a klaxon that bellowed out over the crowd. Some people were already getting ready to duel. Meanwhile, Yugi and the others made their way back to their homes. They couldn't duel after all that happened today…  
Saying their farewells to the Ishtars, everyone left for their own separate homes.

The next morning, everyone awoke in differing places. Kaiba awoke in a soft, four poster bed, Jounouchi, Mokuba and Ryuzaki woke up in the Seto Kaiba Mansion Infirmary, Shizuka and Bakura woke up in the Domino Hospital, and everyone woke up in their beds, or hotel beds in some people's cases, ready for a grand tournament.

And of course, Yugi was never one to pass up the chance for duelling. In fact, he already was.

Everyone backed away from the small area that Stan Marshall, a trainee employee at the local McDonalds, and Yugi Mutou, duelist king, squared up for a duel. The young boy was now taller and hi voice was more sonorous. His wild bangs of golden hair wafted in the breeze of a warm day.  
"As reigning champion, I'll go first." Announced Yugi. He drew a sixth card and looked at his hand.  
"I'll summon gazelle, the king of mythical beasts, in attack mode."  
In the middle of the floor, a sinister looking khaki mammal formed.  
"Now I set 1 card and end."  
Stan drew and smiled.  
"I summon Bean Soldier in attack mode."  
A small green bean appeared, and legs and arms popped out of it. A sword formed in one hand, a shield in the other.   
"Now I equip it with vile germs."  
"Fitting."  
A swarm of small black parasites crawled over Bean Soldier, which absorbed them, growing in stature.  
Attack: 1700  
"Now bean soldier, destroy his gazelle!"  
The bean soldier through his sword at the beast, who roared as it's body shattered into a pile of disease ridden pieces.  
"I'll activate my face down, rope of life."  
Gazelle formed back on the field, now growing himself.  
Attack: 2300  
"How did the attack grow?" Gasped Stan.  
"Due to the effect of rope of life, I must discard my hand to bring back a monster from my cemetery with 800 more attack points."  
"Humph. I end."  
Yugi drew a card.  
"Now I'll use card of sanctity."  
Yugi picked up 6 cards, while Stan only picked up 2.  
"Next, I'll use polymerisation." Stated Yugi, holding up three cards.  
"And I can summon chimera!"  
Anzu, who was with Honda, looked at Yugi strangely.   
"Why is he giving up gazelle for a lesser monster?"  
Honda shrugged. Anzu noticed gazelle was still on the field while chimera formed.  
"Thanks to my goddess with a third eye monster, I can summon chimera without gazelle, and just give up Bafomet as well."   
The crowd applauded the excellent move.  
"Now, as chimera counts as a special summon, I'll bring out my Queen's Knight, in attack mode."  
Beside the two beasts, an elegant young lady in crimson armour appeared.  
The crowd cheered as the duel progressed. Meanwhile, Shizuka and Otogi will sitting with the now refreshed Jounouchi.  
"So now that Shizuka is healed, why exactly ARE you duelling here?" Asked Otogi, swirling a long, delicate finger in his coke.  
"My dad still has heavy bills and fines due to his binge drinking and drug abuse. And let's not start with the prostitution I.O.U slips he has. Like when I entered Get a Million for him, this time, the tournament is for dad…"   
Jounouchi's eyes were glazed as he looked at two of the bronze teams duelling. He pulled out his red eyes and looked at it. The symbol of the Kaiba Corporation tournaments, and his friendship with Yugi…

The crowd gasped, and Jounouchi snapped back into action. Looking at the field, he saw that everything was gone.   
"Fiber jar?" He exclaimed, pulling his own from his deck. Stan obviously ran plants, and this was looking to be a big shift. Stan had now summoned a monster that Yugi had now just destroyed with a ring of destruction.  
Yugi struggled back up after the assault from Stan's deck. His monsters were all gone thanks to Stan's Fiber Jar. Both of them were now at 2100 life points, and anyone could win. It was stan's move.  
"I activate hamburger recipe!" Cooed Stan, waving the ritual card up high.  
"By discarding Marshmallon and Fairy King Trusdale, I can summon my hungry burger in attack mode."  
The two creatures faded off the field after being sliced by a large butcher's knife, to reveal a gigantic hamburger, almost spilling the abundance of vegetables and burger that the two buns contained. It roared with a nauseating breath that smelt of rancid, greasy kitchens. Perfect for a McDonalds worker.  
"Now my burger, kill him!"  
The sandwich leapt at Yugi, and he collapsed back as the burger recoiled from a ferocious bite.  
Yugi: 0100  
"I set one card. Make your move, supposed king of games."   
Yugi drew his next card, and grinned.  
"Stan, I promise you, this game is over."  
Yugi placed his sixth card on the field.   
"I activate fissure to destroy your meat-filled fiend."  
The floor opened up, and a flame red hand groped at the burger, dragging it down into the bowels of the cemetery.  
"You forget my face down card, last will!" Announced Stan. A strip of paper formed on the field, and from it emerged a crimson beast with a manic smile.   
"When my hamburger was killed, I'm allowed to special summon mystic tomato to the field."  
Fine. Now, monster reborn on my chimera!"  
A large, basic ankh formed on the field, and with a piercing roar, chimera formed back on the field, shaking dust from it's shaggy mane.  
"Now I summon my skilled dark magician and attack your tomato."  
A man in a deep blue cloak swept across the field and shattered the tomato.  
"I don't mind. 500 damage is little for when I use tomato's ability."  
A small insect formed on the field with a shield and a sword in it's hands.   
"Welcome my cockroach knight to the field."  
"Oh no, what's that going to do!" Jeered Yugi.  
"You'll see. Now last will's effect kicks in, allowing me to summon my bean soldier to the field."  
"Ok then, Chimera, attack his cockroach knight."  
Just as he declared the attack, the green bean emerged on his side of the field.  
The large beast pounced upon the meagre insect, who tried to hold up the shield, only to fail and die.  
"I'll discard kuriboh to not take any damage. It's merely a ball of dirt, and we're used to them in the workplace."  
Kuriboh flew from his hand and landed in the cemetery. Yugi ended.  
"Now my cockroach knight returns. And thanks to last will, when cockroach and kuriboh went to the cemetery, I got two new monsters. So welcome two more cockroach knights."  
Scuttling from behind him, two more warriors formed on the field. Stan smirked.  
"Cockroaches always appear in packs. Now my cockroach's effect kicks in, and it comes straight back to the field."  
The third cockroach returned with a sinister smile on it's face.  
"Now I'll tribute my new bean soldier to summon another food based monster. Say hello to Pumpking, the king of ghosts!"  
The bean faded away. Now three cockroaches and a pumpkin resided over the field. A gigantic bumpy shape of saffron with a sinister look threw tendrils wildly around the room.  
"And thanks to last will I can summon my castle of dark illusions to the field."  
A veil of shadow swept over Stan's field as a grand citadel formed above his head. He laughed wildly, and then saw Yugi smile.  
"What's so funny?"  
"You. You decide to summon a field of food and disease monsters to try and defeat me? You've obviously forgotten the special ability of skilled dark magician."  
Stan gasped.  
"I didn't know it had one."  
"Oh yes! Now say hello to my favourite monster, black magician!"  
In a swirl of shadow that cloaked the young made, the robes faded into armour, and the man grew taller. He held a long stave in his hand and smiled a sinister smile.  
"Now, my dark magician will shatter your pumpking!"  
The orange shape roared as a blast of black magic swept it away.  
"Now you have 1000 life points left and no big defences, especially after I activate my baptism of light and darkness on Black Magician, summoning my Black Magician of Chaos for an extra attack.  
Black Magician burst open in a stream of energy, revealing a mage in far more revealing black and violet leather clothing. His skin was a pale with age and his hands thin as they grasped the now longer and azure wand in his hands.  
"Now I'll activate poison of the old man, raising my life points to 1300, and then activate my spell!"  
"You didn't set a spell!"  
"Oh I did, you were just too blind to notice it. Or more correctly, my magician played a trick on you. When DmoC is summoned, I can play a spell from my hand or graveyard straight away. And I choose diffusion wave motion."  
"NO!" Exclaimed Stan, dropping his hand.  
"Oh yes!" Now for 1000 of my life points, I can destroy every monster on your side of the field!"  
The magician raised his wand, and with a blast of electric blue energy, the field was cleared.  
"How did you do that?" Gasped Stan, looking at the corpses of his cockroach knights fade away.  
The mage tapped his nose as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Yugi held an empty hand out, and with a twist of his fingers, Black Magician appeared in his hand.  
"A true magician never reveals their secrets."


	4. Blonde and Busty

Chapter Four  
Blonde and Busty 

Anyone who knew Mai Valentine before you would tell you all you needed to know about her in a couple of words. 'Feisty' was something you were told often, 'beautiful' (with different pronunciations and whistling sounds excluded) was another common word. But probably the most popular thing that everyone mentioned about her was whether she was more for Vivian or Jounouchi. No one who lived outside of a cave hadn't heard of Jounouchi and Mai's romance during the months after Battle City and the competition of Varon. But, as always does happen with famous faces and love, rumours were popping up. Glossy magazines were reporting Mai and Vivian Wong, a person who seemed to fight with Rebecca Hawkins over (as the female gossip columns called him) Yummy Yugi, but seemed to be in Mai's flat alot. Of course, magazines like this were in constant danger, as Mai's main reading diet consisted of these.

But Mai seemed to have taken it in good stride, on the outside, at least. Inside, especially when she and Vivian were merely duelling (and not doing something else which involved two people, which many people thought) she was in a controlled fury, thin lips, messy fringe, similar to the few hours before her duel with Malik at Battle Ship. Of course, these rumours were dying down with Seto inviting her personally to the third tournament (not even gossipers were safe from Kaiba Corporation's tyrant eye) and of course, the eye witness accounts she had refused to take Ryou Bakura to Domino Hospital until Katsuya Jounouchi was with her.

Now that the paparazzi fever over the Valentine name had subdued, Mai and Jounouchi were free to be intimate without cameras flashing around them. Neither of the Blonde ne'er-do-wells had been made particularly sensual in their, albeit conflicting, backgrounds, so anywhere was good kissing. The trash bin outside the sushi bar Anzu now worked at, the McDonalds toilets... But of course, sex was another thing. Somehow, although the two of them had known each other for years (Duelist Kingdom had been, what, three or four YEARS ago now?) they had never got round to mentioning it. Anything remotely near it ended in a couple of stuttered mumbles and the radio being switched on. Jounouchi had talked to Anzu about it (who was a mole for Mai) and said he wanted to, he was 18 after all, old enough to get married. And Mai had said the same thing, and of course, Anzu worked for Jounouchi just as much as she did for Mai, so both new of each other's feelings, but somehow, somewhere along the way, it was blocked. The best answer most of them could come up with was Vivian. The young lady had been left out of the situation completely. But now with everything get so busy, no one was really in the mood for getting worried for the two of them.

Sex was, as it always had been during duelling, in the back of Mai's mind, something both she and her lover had in common. The baking hot midday sun was pulsating down upon the streets of Domino and seemingly onto the back of everyone's necks. Mai was lucky. Blondes tanned well. She looked at a patch of tangerine sky behind her as she brushed some long flaxen locks out of her face to try and safeguard her rear. The boy across from her had a sinister snigger that sounded like he had a marble wedged up his nostrils, causing hoarse whisps of noise to come out as he chattered his yellowed teeth in a hysterical fit. Mai had made sure to comment on the fact he had looked like a big otaku when it started, and the boy had found it hard to realise if this was a compliment or an insult, something Mai found frustrating in people. In fact, this geek was reminding her more and more of Haga. If he summoned a pinch hopper and revealed his hair was actually green, Mai really wouldn't have been schocked. She looked back at her team who had already finished duelling. Vivian had ended with a tie after some greasy haired girl had used a ring of destruction, while Isis had won in pure style against a remotely attractive kid who was obviously hating being in the group, his slouched white sports jacket and baggy jeans the exact opposite of the prim school uniforms that the other two were wearing. Mai always noticed appearance, to her, it made the world of difference between people. It was probably why she had taken to Vivian and Isis so quickly. She got ready to continue the duel as he somehow managed to say 'your move' through his incessant ramblings about her eventual demise.  
"You're such a fool! Your harpie ladies can't..."  
"Shut the hell up, dorko, before I set the fashion police on you!"  
The boy recoiled.  
He needs a quick slap from a thorn whip. Lord knows, he never will in reality...   
She noticed that the attractive boy member had coughed up some of his coke from her last insult, and she smiled.  
At least someone here gets the picture...  
She drew her card.  
"I activate card of sanctity."  
She drew six new cards. The boy smiled and held his six sleeved cards (each with a Pokemon on the back, how sad.)  
"I don't need a new hand. MY deck uses perfect hand control. Any good duelist knows..."  
"Every good duelist knows." Groaned Mai in a whiny voice that somehow suited the kid. "Grow up. Just wait for the outcome to make your long lecture on how much you lost."  
The attractive boy smirked at her with a grin that was so much like Jounouchi's. She blushed and adjusted her short skirt, just in case his smile was misdirected.   
"Now, I'll activate Harpie's Hunting Ground."  
Although the field changed very little, the boy screamed, in a very girlish way, as he was tied to a target.  
"But you have no harpie's out..."  
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" She roared, her throat hoarse and dry. Not good in this weather. She placed a monster down.   
"Now my harpy lady, arise!" She cried, and as she finished, a horrible cry arose from behind her, causing the geeky girl Isis had drawn with to jump. Mai hummed a little as she saw the boy gasp.  
"Now I'll activate elegant egotist to summon..."   
"Harpie Lady Sisters?"  
"No dumbass. I'll use the card's second ability, to special summon another harpie from my deck."  
He suddenly noticed his two remaining face down cards. And then he saw they were now tied up to targets as well.   
"Now my harpie ladies get the added ability to destroy your precious two face down cards." Announced Mai, pointing at them with the arm her duel disk was strapped to. The two ladies pounced, and the boy closed his eyes as he felt them brush past him.  
"Now I'll equip them both with rose whips, raising their attacks by 500 points. And due to the power up my hunting ground gives them, they have 2500 attack points each."  
She gasped as she saw four cute little sheep appear on the field. She once again resisted the urge to hug them. This was Jounouchi's card! How dare he!  
"I can chain to your effect you know. And even though my magic cylinders was destroyed, my scapegoat was able to be chained and activate."   
"Oh ye of little faith, I've duelled scapegoat tokens so many times in my day... Activate Nightmare Tri Mirror."  
Behind her, a gigantic vanity appeared, made of a blackening flesh set with eyes and gnarled hands. From each of the mirrors set into the backlit top area, Harpie Ladies appeared.  
"Thanks to them being tokens, and according to Kaiba Corp. rules, they don't count as monsters, so four of them can come out." Stated Mai before the boy could complain.  
"Kenta, whip her backside!" Roared the dorky girl. The handsome boy burst out laughing, finding the innuendo cloaked in it. Mai also burst out laughing. Vivian turned to Isis who was staring blankly at the two laughing blondes and the two pale people in school uniforms.  
"Mai can NEVER take a preliminary duel seriously." Chuckled Vivian.  
"Now my mirror tokens, destroy his sheep tokens!"  
The fake harpies gave a simaltaneous roar and chased across the asphalt (Author's Note: I love that word) to slam their long claws into the small puff balls, all of them shattering in a series of shards.  
"Now my real harpies, attack him directly!"  
He gasped. Both of them had been at 2000 lp and he was taking 5000. Even at full lp he wouldn't have won. How could he lose to a blonde bimbo?  
Kenta screeched as he fell to the floor, feeling the thud and ripping, raw pain of the whips against his pale chest.

Mai walked over and took his ante card, slipping the Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning he held into the sennen eye sleeve. As the attractive boy noticed Vivian flashing his Mystic Swordsman lv6 (although it was his spare one) and Isis picking the girl's Cosmo Queen for the team win (due to the team winning, the draw went to her) he turned to Mai, and walked over to her.  
"That was some duel." He said. She turned to him and saw his eyes had heavy lids that made him look mysterious, just like his swordsmen...  
"I'm sure we'll see each other again." He continued. He held out his hand, and Mai shook it warmly.  
"What's your name kiddo?" She asked him, not trying to sound too flattered.  
"Horus. Horus Fletcher."  
She was about to ask why he wasn't running a Horus deck when he raced off down the street in the opposite direction of the rest of his team.  
Sweet kid...  
Mai turned to see Vivian and Isis.  
"We now have a total of five key cards each." Said Vivian, holding up her set, which glimmered in the sunlight.  
"Just a couple more duels to go!" Chimed Isis. Mai nodded, looking at the feint speck that was Horus in the middle of the plaza.  
Do well Kid...  
She still had yet to noitce Ghoul at the tea rooms across from her.

Unlike Jounouchi had, and to a lesser extent Mokuba and Ryuzaki (who were still in the infirmary beds, but very much awake,) Ryou Bakura had only just found himself in the hospital bed. The sheets were annoyingly crisp as he felt them, the mattress a muddle of pastel pink and olive swirls that was hard and not at all bouncy. He wanted the room in his apartment, with his bed that almost touched the floor...  
He still hadn't noticed Honda sitting beside him. And when he did, he gasped with a slightly high scream. He covered his mouth and blushed.  
Be a man...  
Bakura coughed gruffly and shrugged his shoulders. Honda seemed to find this amusing, chuckling. Bakura looked at him with a worried expression.  
"Has the tournament started yet?"   
"It did, last night."  
"What happened?"   
"You were teamed up with Panik and Bonz." Said Honda, dusting some donut sugar off his jeans. Bakura thought of the names.   
Panik was that guy who had captured Mai just after he had duelled Yugi for the first time back on Pegasus's island.  
Bonz... Was he that boy he had seen dying in the cemetery at Battle City? What had happened to him? How was he alive...  
He shrugged off the question of how both of his teammates survived their near-death situations and smiled.  
"They sound..."  
"Weird?" Honda butted in.  
"There's that..."  
Honda laughed at this.   
"I was really worried about you. I carried you out to Rebecca's car and she drove you to the hospital."  
"That's nice of her." He said, trailing off as he thought of being carried by Honda. He still kept a calm composure,  
and saw Honda finally look up from the patch of donut sugar he was slowly swiping away. It seemed this was the main point  
he wanted to be getting across, and he was about to say...  
"Bakura... I came here... Because I..."  
Bakura fiddled with his hospital vest. He looked at Honda.  
Is this for real?  
"I seem to have lost interest of Shizuka since last night..."  
Bakura had to hold in a roar of ecstasy that just managed to release a shaky smile that crept across his lips.  
"So, I just wanted to say that..."   
Yes?  
Honda never did say how he felt that evening. In fact, he didn't say any more on the matter. Neither of them expected the   
purple-clad figure to enter, knocking down the door and a couple of old dears in the corridor as a reaction. They didn't  
expect the dia dank he slipped onto his wrist. And they never expected the burst of white light to send them sprawling into...  
"DARKNESS!" Roared Ghoul, throwing his arms out to let the black light spread around them.  
"My manticore has enough power to crush your puny mudora Isis, and then some!" Chortled he, placing a spell on the field.  
"Now with my card of safe return on the field, I can draw three cards whenever I special summon a monster from my cemetery."  
Mai recoiled , almost tripping over the unconscious form of Vivian behind her. Beside Ghoul lay the sleepy forms of Haga  
and Ryuzaki, both whimpering in their forced slumber. The toga wearing man before them was chuckling madly, utterly  
enjoying the moment.  
"Thanks to the effect of manticore, I'll tribute it to..."  
"Stop right there!" Snapped Mai, flicking her hand out to activate her spell. "Activate Harpie's feather storm.  
It stops one effect's activation and destroys the monster that used it as long as I have a harpie lady on the field."  
A tempest of pink hued feathers erupted from the duel disk, encasing the beast in a cage of wings, lifting into  
a hurricane that swept it away, the lilac wind fading away.  
"I end my turn after setting two cards..." Sighed Ghoul.  
"My move, punk." Snapped Mai, drawing a card. Her face was now drawn in, pale and bitter. She was in her element.  
"First of all I'll activate monster reborn to bring back the Manticore you yourself just destroyed. Now I'll activate my elegant egotist, special summoning another harpie lady from my deck to the field."  
A decorative sword cracked the grown open, revealing the mighty beast that hovered beside Miss Valentine. On the other end of her field, a set of icey glass cracked apart to reveal another harpie lady, a raucous cry erupting from the duel disk's sound file.  
"Now, it's time for you to have a lesson in how to abuse spells correctly. First of all, I'll activate my spell reproduction, discarding my gather your mind and Harpie Grave caller to bring back monster reborn."  
Harpie Lady pulled out an elegant crystal ball, a series of flashing lights emitting from it, before a spell card formed in the cloudy mists of the occult sphere, appearing back in Mai's hand.  
"Thanks to the effect of Harpie Grave Caller, I can bring back one spell and one monster, as long as the spell has 'spell', 'harpie', 'amazoness' or 'elegant' and a monster with the name 'birdface' 'amazon' 'harpie' or 'pet' in it." She said, picking up one card from her cemetery. "So my cyber harpie will come onto the field in attack mode."  
Along with the other two already out, now there was another one, encased in dull pewter armour that set off her beautiful wings. Isis grinned. Just as they hoped.  
"Now thanks to my other card in hand, united union of birds, I can tribute a monster from my hand that's a wind element along with a monster from the field to special summon a monster from my deck. So I tribute my harpie brother and my manticore of darkness."  
The beast disappeared along with a light from her hand.  
"To summon Harpie Pet Dragon in Attack."  
Another pillar of wind and feather emerged, this time an almost red, but still pink, dragon formed out of it.  
"Thanks to the effect, my three cyber harpies increase my beast's attack by 900 points."   
"So that's why you tributed my originally stronger manticore..." Grinned Ghoul.  
"That's right, and now my Harpie dragon will attack you directly, easily clearing away your 2400 remaining life points."  
The dragon lurched into action, chasing over to swipe at Ghoul... and failing.  
"You triggered my trap card, Jelly Reincarnation."  
A wall of blue slime covered the field as Ghoul laughed.  
"Thanks to the effect of my trap, by discarding my slime charmer Doppleganger I can special summon my revival jam in defence."  
The dragon splattered the wall, only for it to return as a small monster. Mai groaned and ended, Isis taking up the heat.  
"My move..."   
She saw the slime reform. Defence position huh? She'd crush that power...  
"I summon Zolga in attack mode." She stated, slapping the effect monster onto the disk.  
"Now I'll equip it with this card. Fairy Meteor Crush!"  
There was a silence over the duelists. The darkness had faded now, and a burning light erupted from the heavens, now held  
in Zolga's cupped hands.  
"Now my Zolga, attack Revival Jam!"  
"Forgotten the special ability?" Guffawled Ghoul, throwing his arms open. Revival Jam exploded in a shower of blue gunge, but  
Zolga kept rushing forward. Ghoul gasped as he was thrown back, his life points clocking down to 2200.  
"Now I'll set one card and end."  
"Draw." Stated Ghoul, picking up his card.  
"I'll flip my jam defender. Then I'll summon Berserk Gorilla, tributing it to bring back Manticore."  
As a gigantic purple block appeared, the jam flew over it, a fierce look portrayed on the jelly face. As the berserk primate  
faded away, Manticore of Darkness reformed, the scorpion tail released a bolt of lightning at Mai.  
"Thanks to card of safe return, I draw two cards from you destroying my jam and one more for manticore."  
He flicked the three cards off his deck, fanning them out to show his new hand.  
"Three new cards. And three cards I need."  
He placed them into his hand. He only had one other card, the head of exodia. Now he had the left arm, left leg and right  
arm. All he needed was right leg...   
"I then tribute my Manticore to bring back another Manti-"   
"Halt!" Snapped Isis, flipping up her card.  
"Behold my divine wrath magic card."  
A blast of thunder came from the sky, making Manticore of Darkness fade away.  
"Due to the effect, I must discard my entire hand." Sighed Isis, throwing away the one card she held. "But that's a meagre  
price, as thanks to my other card, forced requisition, you have to discard your hands as well."  
Mai sighed as she threw away her sinister serpent. Ghoul growled in anger, discarding the four pieces of exodia to the  
cemetery.  
"I'll end..." Sighed Ghoul. Four pieces were in the cemetery. But there were always duplicates...   
"Now, draw!" Announced Mai, holding the card up.   
"Thanks to my sinister serpent being discarded due to forced requisition, it returns to me hand. Now I'll play my new card  
of sanctity." Snapped Mai, picking up five cards. Isis picked up six, as did Ghoul.  
"Now with our fresh hands, I can make almost any move I desire... Starting with my Harpie's Feather Duster."  
Harpie Lady grabbed a gigantic duster, made of elegant feathers, and with a mad flurry, sliced Ghoul's spells apart.   
"Now that you only have revival jam, time for me to get rid of that, thanks to my Smashing Ground."  
A gigantic fist formed above the jam, and with a mighty slam, it left the field, a few puddles of azure jelly left lying  
around.  
"Now, I remove Harpie's Brother from my cemetery to summon silpheed, and then tribute it for Roc from the Valley of Haze."  
A light flew up from her duel disk, and out of it came a storm of leaves, tossed about by a heavy gale. As they landed, they formed into  
a pale mint mage, who disappeared in another surge of foliage to form a chestnut brown bird with a steel grey beak, a slight fog  
shrouding it's form.  
"Now my Dragon, attack him directly!" 

Corgi McDougall was always one for keeping to morals. Eat well, make friends, and sleep when told to. Tonight however,this  
had been made near impossible. Her darling Horus had been out all evening. How dare he? He must be in stress. Maybe he was  
dead! It did happen, she'd seen it. People would get carried away...  
She brushed the feeling away and continued worrying in her motherly fashion. She was the mother hen of their social circle.  
How could she let him go like that?  
She had now jumped on her bycicle, a baby blue hooded jumper flapping in the breeze, bunny slippers sliding on the pedals,  
sushi stained trousers pounding against the mechanism. She couldn't see him anywhere. But where could he be? He wasn't the sort  
to do something rash.  
And then she found him.  
He was sprawled out next to a trash can, eyes rolled into his head, a dent in his stomach as if someone had pushed a key against  
it. He was sprawled out like a broken marionette, grey blonde hair now matted and dirty, a sweaty form stained with spilt coke.  
She checked his pulse and felt he still had one. Barely. Who could this have been? Hell, any duelist would do for taking rage   
out on. She happened to spot two ladies and a man. The two women both looked exotic. One must certainly have been a hooker, her   
ragged blonde hair and revealing clothes not appealing to Corgi's sense of dignity. The other woman must have that egyptian  
style to attract men with a sense of adventure. How pathetic. She placed her bike beside Horus, and stomped up the road towards  
the tea shop, noticing the man and the blonde collapse. The man had a single card held with him, ring of destruction.  
The other woman, the egyptian looking one, was looking at the five forms around her. What a disgrace to independent women...

Isis had won the duel, but that didn't matter to her. Rain was now coming from the night sky, and no one wanted to be ill  
at this time. She placed Mai and Vivian on one table, the boys at another, propping their limp forms up in the chairs.  
stay still damn you...  
She didn't want to get involved with anything else. Even though the tarpaulin over the front of the cafe was sheltering the  
people from the rain, it was dripping over the edge into Isis's hair, making it more sleek and dark than ever. She shook it  
dry, only to spot a girl, around 15 years old, similar to that team from earlier, pouting at her.  
"Do you know what happened to my sweetheart?" Snapped the young girl, pointing an angry index at Isis.  
"Sweetheart? What are you on about?"  
"My beloved Horus Fletcher! You hurt him you fiend!" Snapped Corgi, throwing back her thick strawberry blonde hair and drawing  
a duel disk.  
She's as bad as Rebecca...  
"Duel." They stated, drawing five cards. 

As Mai fell into a deep sleep, Bakura woke from a bad one.   
He and Honda were sprawled out in the back of a limousine, their forms dripping wet with the rain. Bakura began to rinse out  
his perriwinkle and white bar stripe shirt, folding up the edges of his jeans to rub his socks, swishing his long pale hair  
around, trying to get it to dry off. Thunder sparked off several miles away, but it was still a clear, crisp sound. He saw  
Honda awaken beside him, who dusted off his jeans (again) and placed on the jacket that had been removed from his person.  
Honda's hair was no longer an erect quiff, it was more shaggy and wild, almost like Jounouchi's, but with some sort of order  
in there. The two of them looked at each other, remembering the hospital, and then turned at the sound of a voice.  
"Looking for someone?" Sniggered the captor from behind them, kicking Honda down as he rolled his messy shirt sleeve down to get  
ready to bunch the snobby voice. Bakura turned and gasped as he heard the voice, and saw none other than Pegasus J. Crawford.  
Looking in front of them, he caught a glimpse of the driver. He was bald, tanned, and dressed in a violet business suit. Beside him  
was an associate, reading 'zen in the art of archery' and fiddling with the radio.  
"That's Victor and Kaiba!" 

The moon was now a clear disc in the sky, yet slightly smudged at the edges by dancing clouds. Yugi and Anzu were arm in arm,  
walking with a swagger in their step down the street to the school. Jounouchi was slouched beside them, waiting for his cell phone  
to ring.  
Ring... please, ring...  
He gave up. Mai wasn't going to phone him. Then, he felt the vibration in his pocket. He grabbed his mobile with a sweaty grasp,  
almost dropping it, and saw the call was from Isis. He clicked the 'accept' button.   
"Hey."  
"Mr. Katsuya, Mai is currently knocked out, near the Terrington Tea rooms, sitting in one of the tables. I'm currently trying  
to help her, but some kid is duelling me."   
"Slap her."  
"It's not that simple Mr. Katsuya. I'll talk to you later. Good night." Said Isis in a slightly breathless voice. He knew she  
wanted to slap that kid, but obviously her morals were restraining her.  
Somehow feeling a weight was now off his shoulders, Jounouchi ran ahead of the others into the school hall, sitting down in some of the middle  
seats. Otogi was up at the front, braiding a stray lock of hair. Shizuka was talking to him, and Jounouchi laughed with Yugi  
as they admitted they made a cute couple. Anzu whispered to Yugi, and she stood up, strutting off to the loos. Her stilettos  
echoed around the hall. Slowly but surely, the seats filled with eager fans of Otogi's band, still unnamed. The other members  
had now arrived, all friends of the singer, and sat down around their instruments. Shizuka skipped down and sat next to  
Jounouchi.  
"Heya Big Brother."   
"Hi lil sis."  
The two began nattering about family life as Yugi waited for Anzu. The strip bar lights faded down slightly, and everyone  
gasped in amazement, although it wasn't particularly anything spectacular. The drums started playing in the shadows, and as  
spotlights lit the stage, Otogi bounced on the balls of his feet with the microphone stepping on his toes. He bit his lip  
as he listened to the guitar join in, and as his cue came, he began to sing, a rough, and yet sweet voice erupted from him,  
Jounouchi being forced to nod his head, Yugi driven to tapping his left shoe, Shizuka fiddling with her hands trying not to   
dance. Anzu returned, dancing around as she always did. She giggled as she collapsed next to Yugi, looking tipsy, but still   
sober, or at least she said she was.

Shadows on the dawn,   
Distant legends of time to pass,  
Trapped inside an hour glass,  
Sands of time their only friend,  
Leading them to a solemn end,  
A shadow encased in your sight,  
An essence of eternal night,  
The river of your heart is straight and true,  
It leads me to you,  
Through the darkness and the rain…

A sleet of dirty water falls from the heavens,  
Can't help by wonder why,  
It's me it rains on.  
The curtains swept out of the way,  
A light like no other,  
Welcomes my vision.  
A nightmare in disguise,  
All logic it defies,  
A land beyond the sunset…

Golden horrors,  
Jewel encrusted fear,  
An eye sealed in a tomb of gold leaf,  
A broken sapphire tear.

Damn the people who fear it,  
Lose the darkness,  
Let it go.  
Come down the river of silver,  
Let your wonder travel,  
To a place that we know.  
It's out rapture,  
In the golden city of dreams,  
An emerald city plaza,  
And a dozen ruby streams.   
Welcome to El' Dorado,  
Found beyond the hopes,  
Beyond the glory,  
In a land of it's own,  
Free from law,  
Free from the poor.

The tea is cold,  
A stale memory,  
Trapped inside the china glass,  
Yours words bore me to tears.  
Let your hopes go,  
Release your love,  
Come to your senses,   
You'll find help comes in your years.  
Ancient City,  
Broken lovers.

Dusty men,  
And ancient women,  
Shuffle through a cluttered road,  
Metropolis of metal,  
Far from the nature you love,  
Let the feelings flood your mind,  
Leave your current traits behind,  
Feel the rich gems of nature's goldmine,   
Diamonds are your friend,  
They'll never end…

Waning distance,  
Hazy destiny,  
Serenade the shady streets,  
The last place of eternity.

Damn the people who fear it,  
Lose the darkness,  
Let it go.  
Come down the river of silver,  
Let your wonder travel,  
To a place that we know.  
It's out rapture,  
In the golden city of dreams,  
An emerald city plaza,   
And a dozen ruby streams.  
Welcome to El' Dorado,  
Found beyond the hopes,  
Beyond the glory,  
In a land of it's own,   
Free from law,  
Free from the poor.

A land of freedom,   
Never let it slip through your hands,  
Like encased air,  
A shadow sealed in sterling silver,  
Diamond studded hidden corners,   
Generosity is out of fashion,  
Greed is the new black,  
Your true colours out,  
Come take my hand,  
To the land of dreams. 

A shaded group of violinists began to strum away, playing gently as the guitar mellowed, the drum falling to an almost mute   
volume. Then, as the pace picked up, everything raised in volume rapidly, and with a long note from Otogi, everything  
resumed. 

Damn the people who fear it,  
Lose the darkness,  
Let it go.  
Come down the river of silver,  
Let your wonder travel,   
To a place that we know.  
It's out rapture,  
In the golden city of dreams,  
An emerald city plaza,  
And a dozen ruby streams.  
Welcome to El' Dorado,  
Found beyond the hopes,  
Beyond the glory,  
In a land of it's own,  
Free from law,  
Free from the poor.

Damn the people who fear it,  
Lose the darkness,  
Let it go.  
Come down the river of silver,  
Let your wonder travel,  
To a place that we know.   
It's out rapture,  
In the golden city of dreams,  
An emerald city plaza,  
And a dozen ruby streams.  
Welcome to El' Dorado,  
Found beyond the hopes,  
Beyond the glory,  
In a land of it's own,  
Free from law,  
Free from the poor.

The instruments faded out, Otogi bowed, still with the microphone stand balanced on his feet. The crowd erupted into applause, Jounouchi and Shizuka vying for the loudest whistle of approval.

Behind them, cloaked in purple, holding a duel disk in his hand, a man watched from the window set in the roof. He somehow  
balanced on the smooth tiles, thick, small dreadlocks blowing in the breeze. He felt against the window for where to shatter  
it. The party was about to be crashed...

The rain was pattering down the windows of the limousine now, the thunder growing distant due to the cobra spit of precipitation. Bakura and Honda were now sitting, rather forcefully, in the backseat of Pegasus' car. The flamboyant billionaire and Victor, who had now moved in from the driver seat to leave Seto. Both stared down their captives.  
"We'll make this fairly simple."  
The two teenagers turned to Pegasus who had just spoken, sliding the medusa hand pistol into a glove compartment beside him.  
"We need information on Yugi Boy and his little friends. I'm sure Honda can provide us with that information." Pegasus continued, fiddling with his thumbs, leering over them with an adolescent grin.  
"And little Bakura here happens to have a power we've been searching for. The final piece to Zork's requiem." Said Victor, cleaning a cheese knife as he slid it into the rack beside him. The two students looked at each other. Neither could tell if there was any longing there. They could only sense desperation and a need to escape. Whatever these entrepreneurs were planning, it wasn't going to be pretty.  
"What do you mean by Zork?" Asked Bakura, feeling he'd heard the name somewhere before.  
"Many millennia ago, a great threat plagued Egypt and the pharaoh Atem with his priests. When your past life, Thief Bakura, summoned Zork Necrophidius, everyone fell before him except for the bravest warriors there were. I'm sure Honda here can remember the moment quite well."  
Honda glared at Pegasus, remembering him, Jounouchi, Anzu, Kaiba and Yugi fighting against that gigantic beast in the town. But was that really an ancient being of evil? He had just thought it was some weird duel monster…  
"With the power of Zork at our side, Seto's tournament will be easy to win."  
Bakura stared in anguish through the blackened glass to notice all Seto was doing was driving, his hands clasped hard to the steering wheel. Bakura's face fell. This wasn't what he was expecting. Their friend wasn't exactly saving them.  
"Don't bother with him." Sighed Pegasus, leaning back in his seat. "He can't hear you, he can't hear anyone, and not because of the glass. We happen to have done to him what we've done to every member of NightDuel."  
Bakura was now listening intently, wanting to know why Kaiba was being so hostile.  
"We happen to have powers that I'm sure not even you could understand." Snapped Victor, pulling out a long relic from his trouser pocket, which enlarged as it was fully exposed. He then pulled another from the rack beside him, as Pegasus pulled back his eye patch, showing a golden sphere rolling madly around in the socket.

Anzu, Shizuka and Yugi looked around them. Jounouchi had disappeared off for the toilet and the concert was coming to an end. Yet, some sense of brooding was falling over the trio. They weren't sure what it was, but they weren't looking forward to finding out. Otogi had just finished the penultimate song of the evening, and Shizuka mewed and collapsed against Yugi's shoulder, stretching her arms. 

Jounouchi whistled as he zipped up his jeans, washing his hands. He chuckled at the love heart saying 'Jounouchi 4 Mai' scribbled onto the mirror, and remembering Honda writing that when he was drunk one night. Squirting some soap onto his hands and working the pink stuff into a thick lather, he washed it off and continued whistling as he strolled down the corridors. They were mainly dark, the rare light illuminating a thin area of the floor. As he stepped towards the auditorium, he jumped to hear a shrill scream, and threw open the doors to see precisely what it was. Inside the hall, Shizuka was screaming as two bulky men in black jumpsuits and balaclavas leapt at her. In an amazing show of strength, Otogi leapt from the stage, throwing one to the ground with a scream as a sickening 'click' came as he bent the gruff attacker's neck. As the singer turned to the other one, he was thrown against the far wall by an immense force, sprawled head first against a dent in the wall. Shizuka cried as the other man edged his hand towards her mini-skirt (made of a similar material to short shorts, which she had borrowed from Mai) only for Yugi to throw a roundhouse kick in the man's direction. He was, as he always was in dangerous situations, taller, more mature, and with far wilder hair. Anzu cheered him on until she was winded by a gruff embraced from a man behind her, throwing her handbag round to slap him on the cheek as he arm whirled round with the natural agility to a dancer had. Only two more men were left, and both of them raced at Yugi at Shizuka, throwing them to the ground with immense power, sending them sprawling over to the stage. Jounouchi looked with wide eyes at the two sprawled out forms before him, only to be blocked from the two bodies by a mysterious dark shadow. As he emerged from the darkness, Johnny Steps grinned as the other two men rounded on Anzu and Otogi…

"You can go first." Snapped Corgi, as Isis pulled a card out from her duel disk with a nod of compliance.  
"I'll summon zolga in attack mode, set one card and end."  
A long, navy curtain of a dress appeared, a plain silver head spinning out from it. A metallic roar erupted from the sound file as an oblong appeared behind it.  
Corgi drew with a wide grin.  
"I'll summon one monster in defence and set a card, ending my turn."  
Isis looked at the face down cards.  
How can I trust her…  
Isis looked at her hand. It wasn't the hand she liked to see herself draw. She clasped her neck, hoping for a prediction, and merely groped her tanned flesh. She still needed to get used to the lack of the sennen tauk. She shrugged the feeling away and drew a card.  
"I'll summon pixie mirror, in defence mode." Stated Isis, placing the card on the field. The 2100 defence monster flashed out onto the arena, a vanity mirror, frosted over with a rose tinted ice, was being straddled by a small naked female sprite, who giggled as the card appeared. Isis looked at Corgi through the confetti lighting, illuminating their bright red faces in the darkness of the night.  
"Now my zolga, attack her defence monster!"  
The strange being flew over, and with a blast of light from the stone cold face, the card shattered to reveal a pile of bones, that flew around in the sky before battering Isis with a rain of bodily remnants. Settling back down, it formed into the body of a dog, crimson eyes glaring from the empty sockets in the skull.  
"You attacked my skull dog marron, and thanks to the high defence of my wonderful doggy, you take 300 damage!"  
Isis cursed her idiocy as her life points clocked down.  
"I'll end then…" Groaned Isis.  
"Draw!" Giggled Corgi, obviously enjoying the duel now she was winning. So much like Mai.  
"I'll set another monster and set a card, ending my turn." Grinned Corgi, enjoying using surprises to keep Isis on her toes. The Egyptian duelist drew another card.  
"I'll summon duster brownie." Announced Isis, throwing down another monster. Out of the earth in a twirl of lights, a little fairy with matted blue hair and dressed in a dull maid's uniform emerged, holding a gigantic feather duster.   
"Thanks to my fairy's effect, for every fairy I have on the field, I can destroy a magic and trap card once per turn. So now my pixie will destroy your two face down cards."  
The little nymph ran over, slapping the first card, which flipped up to reveal a set of tanned female warriors in bear skin tunics, the second flipping up to reveal a lady in a skull mask and tatted cobalt robes, dancing a merry jig with a slight menace in the rattle she made.  
"You activated my amazon protection squad and my amazon shaman. Thanks to my shaman card, I can take one amazon monster from my hand and special summon it to the field if it has a star level equal to one of your monsters with the lowest attack."  
"Good thing my Pixie Mirror only has 100 attack points."  
"But it has four stars, allowing me to summon amazon paladin in attack mode."  
From the earth appeared a beautiful blonde woman, also dressed in the strange tunics evident on the others. Isis was strongly reminded of Mai from the hair style.  
"And then the effect of my protection squad activates, allowing me to special summon one feline or canine monster from my hand straight to the field."  
The warriors from the card leapt into the air, forming into a golden ball of energy, before spewing down to the ground in a shower of light. From the aura the card gave off, a sleek white tiger, covered in thick scars appeared.   
"My amazon tiger gets a 400 attack point boost from every amazon on the field, and luckily, both paladin and tiger count. So now my tiger has 1900 attack points!"  
Isis saw the tiger grow a little as it roared at her.  
"I'll activate my face down card fairy's masquerade. It allows me to choose two spells in my deck and use them instantly, so I'll choose card destruction and fairy rebirth."  
As all the magic and trap cards faded away, Isis flicked through her deck for the two cards, playing them instantly.   
"My first card, card destruction, sends our hands to the cemetery to draw a same amount of cards. It's my second turn, meaning I hold seven cards, and four of them were on the field, meaning I get three cards to my hand. My second hard, fairy rebirth, special summons all fairies discarded from my hand this turn to the field. So both my Airknight Parshath and my hysteric angel will appear on the field."  
In a shower of golden, pastel green and lavender sparks, a centaur man with long blonde hair and beautiful armour, along with a young man with short blue hair, horn rimmed glasses and a prim school uniform, clasping two text books, appeared. 

"Johnny."  
Anzu squared off against him, her shoulders straight, tense and drenched in sweat, her handbag lying open on the floor, her clothing messy and dirtied.  
"Ms. Mazaki, it's been a while, no?" Chuckled the young dark man, flicking his thick dreadlocks back with an elegant movement as he ran a hand over his sweaty torso. Anzu snorted his disgust, curling a lip. He walked towards her in an ape like stumble, lifting her head so he could see her chin, sniffing it with a strange wonder, kissing it with his raw, chapped lips. Anzu shivered, Otogi and Jounouchi approached, and the two men stepped forward, pounding their fists against their hands as they glared at the two scrawny teens.  
"We've got a simple proposition for you, kids." Snapped one of the men, pulling out a duel disk that stood out on his bulky, clothed wrist. Jounouchi pulled out his disk, letting it snap into place. Anzu followed suit, letting the duel disk click into place on her wrist. Otogi sighed and pulled out his as Johnny and the other man also pulled out their duel disks, loading their decks.

"This shall be a team match for entrance to the blue eyes dome." Stated one of the two bandits, as Johnny and the other man stepped behind him. "I challenge Otogi Ryuuji."  
Otogi flicked back a stray hair. He chuckled, and looking at his opponent with shallow olive eyes, picked his first five cards.

Bakura and Honda felt the scare halt as Victor stepped out, looking in the proximity of the entrance. Pegasus didn't turn to look. He kept his strange gaze upon the two teenagers as they shuffled around. The gun Pegasus was now holding again was all they needed as proof to tell them to sit still. After about ten minutes of heavy rainfall and thunder, Victor splashed back into the car with the limp form of a young boy in his grasp. The person must be two or three years younger than Bakura, and yet he had an incredibly mature look, muscular arms, pale yet tanned in the right light skin, and grey blue hair that fell over his brow like a curtain of frozen rainwater.  
"This young man here felt what the sennen ankh can do earlier…" Grinned Victor, showing the long golden key to his prisoners. The dent in his chest showed where it had been inserted to his soul room. Something Bakura remembered from long ago.  
"What are you going to do with us?" Moaned Honda, asking what all of them had thought, including Horus, earlier.  
"We're going to make you our spies into Yugi's little band of brothers. Both of you have been taken over so many times before I doubt it will effect you."   
The two of them looked at each other nervously. Victor was slowly clambering over to their seats as the car swayed lightly and drove down the highway. The key was coming ever closer towards Bakura's chest, and Honda swore as he tried to leap forward, only to find his hands bound together.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt much. Just let your mind run free…" Sighed Victor, placing the key lightly against Bakura's chest.

Seto Kaiba awoke to find himself driving his own limousine down the highway from Domino. He wondered why precisely he was driving a chauffeur driven car, but shrugged the feeling away as he heard four voices he recognised in the seating behind him. Spinning the car to a halt, he heard the voice of Victor swear as he was thrown against the side of the compartment, the angry snap of Pegasus at his careless driving, and Bakura and Honda give satisfactory yells of glee.  
Kaiba jumped out of the driving seat, got out the car, and opened the door into the passenger area, seeing Victor holding two large golden relics and Pegasus holding his sennen eye in the direction of the two boys, keeping their arms locked behind their backs. As soon as he gasped at the sight, Pegasus turned towards him, and he felt his arms lock behind him with a strange force that felt like magnetism, which was apt, as his limbs were like dead lead weights now. Bakura and Honda, now freed, tried to squeeze out the door, only to be blocked by Kaiba being dragged in.  
Victor jumped out, picking up the medusa pistol from Pegasus, and leapt into the driver's seat, pushing the car onwards towards the river bridge, hoping it wasn't opening to let a ferry through…

Malik had a long drive back to the hotel. Rishid sat meditating in the sidecar, Isis still in the city, who had phoned to say she'd make her own way back. At this time of night, there were always plenty of mad, drunken drivers, as Malik had learned far too easily, and this night was no exception. Ahead of him, swerving madly, was a car he recognised as a limousine, and suspiciously similar to Kaiba's. That man had always been a bit mad…

Bakura and Honda kept their heads down as Seto sat beside them, keeping a stiff upper lip and a dull expression in his eyes. Pegasus smirked as he pulled a second gun out of the glove compartment, and held it at his rival's neck.  
"So Kaiba boy, you finally decide to come to my mercy after all."  
"Spare me the gloating Mr. Crawford."  
"C'mon, we've been through SO much, how could you treat me like an enemy?"  
"Because you are my rival in business. A sad twisted freak who likes to play mind games with pawns who have no understanding or intellect." Snapped Kaiba, tears forming in his eyes as he remembered seeing Mokuba's lifeless body thrown before him at Duelist Kingdom, worried for both his and his brother's life.  
"Precisely, that's why you and your brother are the perfect choices for controlling, no intellect or understanding of my sennen magic." Replied Pegasus with a slight sneer. He grunted, and Kaiba was forced to look down at the ground like the other captives.  
It was then they heard the motorbike engine roar behind them. For the five seconds, Pegasus kept his eye away from them, the three Domino students looked out the back window to see Malik and Rishid chasing behind them. They could see Malik was shocked that Seto was in the back, and as Pegasus began to turn back, Honda tore the gun from the American's hand and leapt upon him, Bakura biting the man's leg as he roared in pain. Victor swore again as the car took a sharp swerve, and he got it back on line with the centre of the road. Nothing would stop them now…

Malik had certainly been shocked to see Seto Kaiba wasn't driving. He hadn't been expecting something that bad from a young man like Seto, but still, it was his car. Was it hijacked? The three of them had certainly set themselves on Pegasus quick enough, noticing the car swerve, Malik pulled the bike back, swinging it to the left, so it was head to head with Victor, who was driving. Malik didn't know who the man was, but he had seen him in the mall a few days before. He had been with those people in purple togas.  
They must be up to something…  
Malik bashed the side of his motorcycle against the car, scratching it with a storm of sparks, snapping Rishid out of his trance and scaring Victor, sending him into another swerve, and trying to get back onto the centre of the road, bashing Malik aside for a second.

Otogi drew his sixth card as he started the duel.  
"I'll summon Horus lv4 in attack mode, set one card, and end."  
On Otogi's field in front of the face down card, appeared a small silver bird with glowing ruby eyes and stiff wings that seemed incredibly artificial. The man pulled off his balaclava to reveal a tanned, scarred face, with a thick messy mop of red hair.   
"My name is Esparanza, and you'll fear the day you duel me."   
"Just get on with the move…" Sighed Otogi. The tall man drew and grunted.  
"I'll summon X-head cannon in attack mode, set one card and end attack your horus."  
A vermillion and azure machine emerged, blocky, with short arms and a rusty cannon head, and fired an electric blue shot at the small bird, who screeched as the attack came near.  
"Flip my card up, magic cylinder."  
There was an explosion of lights as a harlequin barrel formed on the field, the attack mounting inside, only to fly back in the direction of Esparanza, destroying X head and some of his life points.  
"I end…" Moaned the tall redhead, letting Otogi draw.  
"I'll activate summon dice."  
The spell he placed down flipped up, forming a rotating white dice in mid-air. With a large explosion, a tall man in royal blue armour formed out of it.  
"How did you…"   
"Simple. For the cost of 1000 life points, I can activate the effect of summon dice, and thanks to the roll, I summoned Orgoth the Relentless to the field."  
Otogi saw his life points clock down.   
Otogi: 3000 Esparanza: 2200  
"Now I can attack directly with my Orgoth and win the duel. My mighty warrior! Destroy this man's life!"  
Otogi pointed a thin arm to send his warrior forward, slamming a sword into the ground, and not into his opponent. Around the swordsman, a silver armour covered in thorns and sharp objects appeared, and with an explosion that sent Otogi sprawling back against the far wall, his monster disintegrated.  
"Fool! You activated my sakuretsu armour trap card. With the effect, it sends your monster to the cemetery when you attack me."  
"You may have beaten Orgoth the relentless, but Horus can still attack."   
The bird flew up to the man, and with a sharp peck, landed back on Otogi's field with a happy expression on it's artificial features.  
Esparanza: 600  
"Your move."  
The bulky man drew a card, and grinned.  
"I'll summon my casino machine."   
A large, orange machine appeared, falling against the ground with a heavy thump as a single arm appeared from the side, holding a large cannon in the direction of Otogi.  
"First, I'll activate my casino machine's special ability. By discarding my night assailant, I can summon tokens equal to the star level of my monster, which means I get three, all with the same stats as my monster."  
Three golden coins with 200 attack and 500 defence were spewed from the cannon, landing on Otogi's side of the field.  
"What in the world?"  
"Did I forget to mention? The tokens appear on your side of the field in attack mode."  
Otogi looked at the three pieces of money that sat prettily on his side of the field.  
"Now I'll remove my night assailant and my X-head cannon to summon Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning."  
The two monsters appeared back on the field, disappearing into a midnight blue vortex on the field, and out came a monster that Otogi was scared to look at. With an angry face and glimmering black armour, the monster was a force to be reckoned with, and Otogi knew it all too well from practising against Yugi before now.  
"Now my Black Luster Soldier can attack two of your tokens, doing 2800 for each one, 5600 in total, more than enough to wipe your life points out boy."  
The soldier raced forward, smashing the first token into little shards. Otogi's life points clocked down to 200 as the soldier leapt forward to attack the second. The sword caught the token and then slammed against Otogi's chest, sending him even further back against the far wall. A shower of dust and rubble fell from the ceiling, shrouding Otogi. Esparanza walked towards him, and then roared in horror as he saw a kuriboh emerge from the dirt and grime. Otogi held the card in his hand, shaking violently as he got up.   
"Don't count me out just yet…" Joked Otogi.  
Otogi: 200 Esparanza: 600  
"Due to the effect of Casino Machine, for every token destroyed this turn I have to send that many cards to the cemetery from my hand. So out goes my limiter removal and my sinister serpent. I end."  
Otogi managed to draw a card, and looked at it with a smile seen commonly on a delinquent's face after a particularly good idea came to mind.  
"I first of all activate tribute to the doomed, discarding my makyura the destroyer to destroy the final token on my field."  
A set of bandages crept from behind Otogi, and then whirled around the coin, smashing it into a decrepit dust on the floor.  
"Now I'll activate snatch steal, to take your Slot Machine from you."  
Esparanza looked at his opponent.  
He's flipped!  
"Ok then…" Muttered the bulky man, as his machine stomped over to Otogi's field. He had one card left in his hand, and he hoped it would work.  
"Now I'll activate my card of sanctity, drawing six new cards for me and a fresh hand for you as well." Snapped Otogi, sending the spell to the cemetery as six golden lights formed in his grasp.  
"Now, I'll activate shield and sword, allowing me to swap the defence and attack of all monsters on the field, and now casino machine has 2000 ATK while your soldier has 2500."  
The images blurred for a second as the new amounts totalled up.  
"Yes? So what! My monster is still far stronger than yours!"  
"Not now… when I activate my magical necromancy."  
The trap card appeared, and Esparanza remembered Makyura's effect as he swore under his breath.   
"Now I can discard two cards from my hand, leaving me with two cards, to increase my life points by 1000 for every monster in my cemetery. The two cards I discarded were both monsters, being horus lv6 and lv6 again, and my orgoth also gives me an added 1000. Now I'll activate my final card, graverobber!"  
Otogi thanked Jounouchi for giving him his spare copy of this card as his lp dropped back down to 1200.  
"Due to it's effect, my only card in hand now is the limiter removal I take from your cemetery, and I'll use it to power up casino machine's attack to 4000."  
The machine grew in size, the cannon also increasing, now taller and bigger than the soldier before him. Esparanza looked through his hand to see if he had any options. There were none.  
"Now your own monster, casino machine, will destroy black luster soldier!"  
The cannon charged up a fierce amount of energy, and the black-clad duelist covered his eyes as his monster was wiped out and he was thrown back by the rest of the energy that engulfed him, sending him down to 0 life points. He dropped his hand, moaned, and fell to the floor as his eyes glazed over. Otogi stumbled over to the corner to nurse his wounds, as Jounouchi stepped up, along with the second man, who pulled off his balaclava to reveal a pale face, clean shaven, and a slicked down mass of blonde hair that went down to his shoulders, and grinned as he opened his eyes were a piercing pewter grey.  
"My name is Domingo, and I shall put an end to what Esparanza started." He said, kicking his cohort aside, who did nothing but shudder violently for a few seconds, a delicate foam forming at the edges of his lips.  
"My name is Katsuya Jounouchi, and for the sake of my sister, I shall defeat you!"  
Both readied their duel disks as the second game began.

The toll bridge was coming nearer, and both Victor and Malik gasped as they saw it was going vertical to let a boat through. Just what they hadn't hoped for. Pegasus was now keeping all three of his opponents at gun point by the doorway, ready to shoot it open for them all to fall when the need arose. The car put on an extra burst of speed as it knocked Malik and Rishid aside. 

"Keep on it's tail." Said Rishid calmly, fiddling with his ponytail to vent any worry he had. Malik was sweating, his calm grip now slipping into an adolescent fury to keep hold of the now sweaty handlebars as he sped on down the road. He felt the wheels bump as both he and the car sped up the side of the ever moving road, which was now at around 45 degrees up in the air. It was slowly becoming ninety, ever nearing 180, as they came towards the halfway point, and as they reached the top, it was almost vertical, and as both vehicles thundered over the gap, everything happened at once. 

Bakura, Seto and Honda leapt in separate directions as Pegasus shot the door open, all three of them clasping hold of the angry American's arms and neck as the car hurtled over the blank space. Victor pushed the car on, swearing furiously in Egyptian for it to start. Malik and Rishid's motorbike collided with the side of the far bridge, and fell, screaming, towards the waters below. The car thudded down on the other side, and screeched to a halt in a small wooden clearing to the side of the bridge's far end. The form of the young boy had, all this time, been left on some of the spare seats, and as the car shuddered to a halt, he flopped to the floor of the interior area.

The three hostages and Horus' limp form were taken through a pass in the woody area, Pegasus carrying the body of the child as Victor held the two guns behind the heads of the bound school children, leaving Kaiba to lead the way, also chained up by the magnetic force of the sennen eye.  
They kept walking for around five minutes, only the sounds of flustered birds, wildlife and cracking twigs breaking their silence.  
Eventually, they reached what they could only call a sinister looking compound, made entirely of metal. Victor staggered over to the front entrance, muttering a password into the intercom, and the door opened to let them all through. As Pegasus gave the body to two people in togas who walked up, Victor stepped into an open elevator, which disappeared off into the main building. Pegasus saw the other three, all with sinister looks on their faces. The bridge could be seen now closing in the distance, and Bakura began to cry as he thought about Malik.  
Honda wrapped his bound arms around Bakura, more as a friend than anything, and let the pale young boy cry a little.  
Seto did nothing. He had little affection for madmen and their helpers who tried to kill him. And that was why he was hating Pegasus and Victor right now. They had been dragged from their tournament so quickly, without any explanation, due to some Egyptian magic trick. He didn't believe it for one second. No matter how much evidence people had, he wouldn't accept any of it. The flamboyant American businessman stepped into an automatic door to the main building, leaving the three of them to wait.  
After about fifteen minutes, he stepped back out, with two lifeless forms beside him. Kaiba and Honda were shocked as Bakura tore himself away from his friend's arms. Ryuzaki and Mokuba, both with similar marks in their chests, were standing before them, along with the boy from earlier.  
"Kaiba Boy, don't do anything rash, I have to explain something very important to you…"


	5. Never known to soothe

Chapter 5  
Never known to soothe

Isis and Corgi were now worn down, and neither was going to give up. Hysteric Angel, Airknight Parshath (1900) Duster Brownie (1500), Pixie Mirror (100) and Zolga (1700) were staring down Corgi's Amazoness Paladin (1900), Amazoness Tiger (1900) and Skull Dog Marron (1350) were all as fierce. It was a close duel, with Isis at 3700 and Corgi still with a full 4000… but not for long.  
"Thanks to Paladin's special ability, it gains 100 for every Amazoness on my field, so it also goes up to 1900 to match my Amazoness Tiger."  
Isis looked at the three cards in her hand. She picked up one of the spells and placed it down on the field gingerly.  
"I'll activate my spirit of the knight and double attack magic cards." Snapped Isis. From the sky above her, a stream of golden rain fell in a ring around her monsters. Then, Parshath picked a second sword from a hilt on it's left thigh, holding it up to the amazon militia before him.  
"My spirit of the knight magic cards means that when I attack with a monster of the same attack as yours, my monster survives the stalemate. Meanwhile, my double attack allows me to attack your monsters twice. And thanks to Pixie Mirror's effect, I can increase the attack of one monster on my side of the field by 500. So Zolga will raise it's attack to 2200."  
As the centaur got ready to charge, the mirror cast off the fairy, who embraced Zolga's neck as the attack clocked up.  
"So now my Parshath will attack both your paladin and tiger, destroying them without me taking any disadvantage."  
The lady and her tiger were shattered by the twin swords of the angelic warrior, and Corgi gasped as Zolga swooped, like an overgrown bat, over the bone canine to destroy it in a single blast.  
"Due to the effect of double attack, I have to discard one card from my hand if I use the effect. So I'll discard my elf avatar, which gives me 300 life points for every monster I destroyed this turn."  
Isis felt a warm glow caress her skin through the rain, and her life points increased to 4600.  
"Your move Corgi."  
The girl brushed back a couple of auburn locks, straightening her hair band as she pulled the card from her deck. She sneered and placed the card down.  
"I'll activate card of sanctity, which makes us draw until we both have six cards in hand."  
Both of them picked up cards to add to their hands.  
"I'll use my polymerisation magic card to fuse the artificial dog marron in my hand, the bone dog marron in my hand and the outstanding dog marron in my hand, to special summon Cerberus in attack mode. Next, I'll use my serial spell, to reactivate polymerisation, fusing the gazelle and bafomet in my cemetery to summon chimera."  
Five glowing lights burst from the duel disk, forming two monsters on the field.  
"You may be wondering how I was able to fuse from the cemetery? Well, my cerberus allows me to use any monsters in my cemetery as if they were my hand, but I must pay 600 life points for each I use."  
Corgi's life points fell by 1200, going to 2800, and she looked at her two new dogs on the field.  
"Now I'll use Cerberus' other ability. By discarding my entire hand, I can special summon up to three monsters with the word 'marron' in the name to the field and search out one spell with the same word in it. So I'll search out a third skull dog, another artificial and another outstanding dog marron, and then take out my spell card Marron's natural release."  
Corgi threw her hand into the cemetery, picking up her spell and placing it on the field as the robot canine, bone golem dog and fluffy brown puppy emerged on the field. As the spell took place, all three monsters grew in stature, wild looks appearing on their usually mellow faces.  
"Thanks to my card's effect, as long as all three of my dogs are on the field, they get a new attack of 2000."  
Isis looked at her hand. She had only one option.  
"Now, my Outstanding dog marron, destroy Airknight Parshath."  
The now enormous hound leapt at the horseman, digging it's teeth deep into the monster's fleshy left leg. The monster shattered apart, and Corgi grinned, only to see her life points drop to 2400.  
"What in the world…"  
"You triggered the special ability of my pixie mirror again. I can use it even in your turn, so I paid another 500 to increase the attack of Parshath, and let you attack a mirror image of it."  
The dog turned to see a far larger creature than it had just devoured appear and behead it with a firm sword strike. Corgi groaned in anger.  
"Fine then, my Skull Dog will attack Zolga."  
The beast leapt at the machine, smashing it apart in a matter of seconds.  
"I may lose 300 life points, but I gain 2000 from Zolga's effect, meaning I have a 1700 life point increase."  
Isis's life points raised a further 1700 to 7300.  
"Now that your pixie mirror's defence is lowered then, my cerberus will destroy it, and you take 1300 damage due to the difference between attack and defence."  
Isis had forgotten that for the attack boosts she had given, her mirror's defence lowered, and she fell to 5000, and also to her knees.  
"Now your hysteric angel is next, and my chimera will destroy it with a total attack of 2100, dealing a further 300 damage to your life points."  
Isis moaned as she felt her angel explode before her, and her life points fell to 4700.  
"And now my artificial dog marron will destroy your duster brownie, leaving you with 4200 life points."  
As Isis saw her health clock down, she felt winded by the pounding of the dog's metal head against her chest.  
"Now I end, and due to my spell card, all three of my marron dogs are destroyed."  
Isis drew her seventh card.  
"It's over, Corgi." She said, simply. The girl didn't answer. She wasn't giving up now.  
"I still have two monsters on the field. I highly doubt it."  
Yep, she's like Mai alright…  
Isis placed down her spell.  
"I activate my shinato ark, discarding toon gemini elf and mystical elf to summon shinato, king of a higher plane."  
A large wooden boat appeared before the two women, and with an explosion of light, a tall man, covered in fine golden robes and with midnight blue skin, emerged beside the centaur paladin.  
"Now I use my God's final order card, allowing me to special summon the two cards I used to summon Shinato, bringing back Mystical Elf and Toon Gemini. Then, I tribute Mystical Elf and Toon Gemini to summon Guardian Angel Joan."  
As her spell faded away, two orbs of light flew into the air, forming into a set of earrings that were attached to a set of delicate ears. A short crop of ginger hair flapped wildly in the wind, long white robes bellowing out like a torn flag in the mad rainstorm. Corgi began to wail, covering her eyes with a cardigan sleeves, crying into them.  
"You hurt my sweet Horus and now you do the same to me…" Sobbed Corgi, clasping her breast as she fell to the ground.  
"What do you mean I hurt your sweet Horus? I never did anything to him!"  
"You liar! I saw him over by the trash cans with the dent in his chest."  
Isis's eyes widened in shock.  
"Don't try and hide it any longer you stupid lady, you did that to him!"  
"No… I didn't…" Sighed Isis, wiping a tear from her eye.  
"But I know who did."  
Corgi looked up at Isis, and grinned, got ready to accept her fate.  
"Now, Guardian Angel Joan will destroy Chimera, doing 700 damage to your life points and lowering you to 1700."  
The beautiful angelic lady swept a rapier past the khaki beast, destroying it.  
"Now, Shinato, attack Cerberus, doing 900 further damage." Announced Isis, swinging her hand forward to announce the attack. A ring of light burst from the man's cupped hands, and the canine was engulfed in a bright light, sending it to the cemetery.  
"And finally, airknight parshath, deal the final blow."  
Corgi shut her eyes as the sword sliced her chest with a sharp wind. She collapsed in a blubbering heap.  
"The person who did that to your lover is no friend of mine, but I do know who it is. He used an ancient magical relic to visit the soul of your sweetheart Horus and control him like a mind puppet." Said Iris, soothingly, rubbing a hand up and down Corgi's back.  
Corgi looked up at Isis, finding it hard to believe.  
"I know you don't believe me, but it's true. I promise. The thing is, I have no idea how he's here or where 'here' is. But I promise we'll find him."  
Corgi began crying again, embracing Isis's neck. The two of them sat in the rain, cooing to each other like sisters, forgetting the forms behind them for just a minute, as they found new friends.

Kaiba had now stopped looking at Mokuba and had turned to see Ryuzaki.  
"How… how can he be here when he was in the infirmary? I saw on the system today he had been duelling with his team, and yet… is there two of them?"  
Pegasus chuckled as he showed a card he was holding.  
"My eye can do more than magic tricks Kaiba Boy. Thanks to it's power from Yami No Games, it can make cards come real, and my precious doppleganger has allowed me to do that. This here, is the real Ryuzaki, but wherever the other is, he's merely a copy."  
"But why. Why did you want him?" Asked Bakura, butting in.  
"It's a fairly simple reason, actually. I need all the cards I can get to help summon Zorc by channelling the Ka out of them, and Ryuzaki just happens to be a mediocre duelist, meaning I get a decent supply of cards easily, but still good ones."  
Honda was looking at Mokuba and the boy, who was just as lifeless as ever.  
"And why are they here? Godammit Pegasus, they're only children!" Snapped Honda, throwing himself in front of the others.  
"Mokuba's deck happened to contain rather potent monsters. And Horus had a little card I happened to need."  
"And that would be?" Asked Kaiba, hoping he had the card to barter with Pegasus.  
"Your brother has the envoys, very useful indeed, and of course rare, while Fletcher Boy happens to hold Reshef, one of the demi-gods."  
"Demi-gods?" Asked Bakura, remembering being attacked by Osiris back on battle ship for a brief second.  
"Indeed. Horus, Nephtys, Reshef and the Creator. Each of them is held by a particular duelist, and luckily, I happen to have all four in easy reach."  
"What do you mean?" Replied Honda, ready to start fighting if Pegasus got too far out of hand.  
"My team mates happen to hold Nephtys and Horus due to the lives they lead. I myself hold the creator for obvious reasons. The two birds of fire are kept by two families that I myself have never quite got along with, they were noisy, annoying and stuck up brats if ever I'd meet any." Spat Pegasus.  
"A bit like you then." Retorted Kaiba, edging towards Mokuba, to feel his limbs snap together again.  
"Easy Kaiba Boy. You are here, of course, because you have a connect with ancient egyptian history and can tap into the power of sennen items we cannot possess. All of the items are here, except for the puzzle, but no matter. When Yugi enters the finals of this tournament, we'll make sure to steal it."  
Kaiba remembered seeing himself hold the rod, and his supposed ancient father having the eye. Of course, Pegasus had got the eye back, and that Victor person had been able to take two of them, so with the Tauk and Ring left, all they needed was Isis and Bakura. And of course Yugi, but they had plans for him already.  
"As you know, Bakura also can hold the ring, and this time, it's the real one. And of course, Isis will be coming soon, due to what we did to her brother and his annoying friend."  
Victor now returned from the compound, and lead everyone silently into the main building. They travelled down a long stairwell, stopping at the bottom to face a large stone door. Opening it up, the three hostages had to contain their horror.

Isis never liked late night phone calls, but she and Corgi had to follow this one. It had come from a rather mysterious voice, which she was sure she recognised. They had been told to go to the main toll bridge at the Eastern Domino Highway, and she had obliged, catching a bus that happened to be going in that direction. Although she desperately needed to wash her hair and do her make-up again thanks to the rain making it cascade down her face, she somehow felt this was important. You can take the sennen item from the person, but you can't take the person from the sennen item, and Isis still had those dangerous instincts that things would effect her, or what she would draw next in a duel would be important.  
She had left Corgi to guard the others at the tables, and received another call (damn teenagers) to tell her Horus had disappeared and that the others were waking up.  
The bus halted at the toll bridge, and Isis got off, paid her fare, and stepped over to the far end of the bridge, not too far from her stop, and followed what the instructions had said, and looked down to the river below. She didn't know precisely what happened next. A sharp stab burned through her back, her vision went black, and she fell, down, down, down…

Corgi shivered for the umpteenth time as she looked about her. Mai and Vivian had now begun to wake, their eyes hazy and their memories foggy. Haga had also woken up, and had been perfectly alert, already stumbling home. Ghoul however, wasn't doing anything. Corgi reckoned she had little need to check on him though, and instead put Mai and Vivian out into the rain to try and wake them up. She figured it may act like a cold shower, or something of the sort. It took about half an hour for the two of them to finally fully awake, both of them needing to be filled in about what had happened. They were glad to find themselves with seven item cards apiece now, but Isis had seemed far less bothered, and when asked by the two ladies as to where Isis was, Corgi could only say she had been told to go to the toll bridge on the Eastern Highway.  
"Isis isn't a rash person. She'll be fine." Said Mai, leaning back in her chair. Vivian looked at her in an exasperated manner. She never did get to express her opinion though, as, rather unexpectedly, they felt their navels being tugged, and getting to glance back at a melting form of Ryuzaki, they disappeared in a flash of light. The doppelganger returned to it's original form, and disappeared to reunite with his card.

Even Pegasus and Victor seemed shocked at the sight of the room, and they should have been. It wasn't your ordinary hall. The room was made of a crumbling stone, standing up on once elegant pillars was a rough ceiling, blanking out the night sky completely.  
Around them, hundreds of duel monster cards were encased on the walls, each in labelled display boxes, and in each were the decks of various duellists, pegged up to the whitewashed backs. Hundreds more empty boxes spread down the far side of the chamber, while people in long white robes bustled about, checking large machines, all circling what seemed to be an enormous indigo urn, bubbling with acid lime liquid. Just a few feet away, in between the doorway and the computer systems, was a large stone tomb, circled with ring-like inscriptions.  
Standing behind that was the carving that Kaiba knew, displaying he and Yugi as their ancient forms, duelling in a grand fight to the end, eternally carved in stone.  
In the large stone sarcophagus that was before them, sat three glittering objects.  
One was a golden ring, covered in spokes, and with a triangle marked with the eye of Horus in the centre, connecting to the circular main structure. Another was a thick tauk, also marked with the same eye, made of 19ct gold by the looks of it's robust nature. The final object was a thin rod, also with the eye, and two bat-wing decorations atop the sphere marked with Horus's symbol. Kaiba was drawn towards it, and he heard Bakura following suit, as they stepped towards it. The chamber containing the items had never been known, but it was assumed to be known to the tomb keepers.  
Could it be, that the power of the items they had could move a whole chamber? From what they had seen so far, it wouldn't surprise them. Pegasus and Victor stepped beside them as they leaned down to pick up the glimmering golden objects. Kaiba and Bakura's eyes were now glazed over, almost in trances, as they sweated and turned pale, shaking and stuttering as the power they couldn't resist came near to them. Bakura slipped his fingernails under the ring, dislodging it from the tablet, stroking the smooth relic that was a perfect circle, and it was his. All his. Kaiba slipped his fingers under the rod, picking it up, fondling it in his grip, feeling the cold metal warm in his clammy grasp. He had seen it held by so many, and now he knew his competition was gone, it was his. All his. And no one would get it. Ever. He saw Bakura's sinister smirk beside him as the ring shrouded him in a sinister persona.

Corgi, Mai and Vivian awoke to find themselves in a large atrium, with only a single door to lead them through. It was dark and dingy, and smelt heavily of cigarette smoke and white rain shampoo, and each of them realised, on their own, that they had to go through that door.  
"This is it…" Sighed Mai, pulling it open, walking into the warm firelight that burst through like the sunrise. Vivian followed, Corgi stepping in behind them, rubbing her arms furiously in the cold chamber, and suddenly warming up in the new hall. A familiar face turned to greet them, and Corgi gasped to see Pegasus J. Crawford for the first time.  
"Hello there ladies."

Jounouchi started things off, looking at Sugoroku's deck with an appearance of deep thought. It seemed to be hard work.  
"I'll summon Panther Warrior in attack and set one card, ending my turn."  
The sleek black feline, erect in deep black armour, glared at Domingo as he played his pot of greed, drawing two cards.  
"Now I'll activate this card."  
There was a sudden quiet as the ground splintered around them, a chunk of the stage was thrown away as the ring of diamond formed around them. If Corgi had come any earlier, she would have seen the ring disappear from around Isis's duel and take the deck, and life, of Ghoul away, just as the circle was now planning to do.  
"This is the seal of Zork, and whichever duelist loses in this ring will be punished with death, their deck taken to the ritual room."  
Jounouchi cocked his head to the side.  
"How come I didn't die last time?"  
"It can only take one person. I believe Dinosaur Ryuzaki was taken instead." Stated Domingo, his voice now more hoarse than before.  
"Now, I'll summon my Goblin Attack Force ready to fight your panther warrior."  
As Domingo held up the card, the image appeared on the field in a blast of flame red light. Jounouchi shielded his eyes as the monster raced forward, slamming a heavy oak club against the skull of panther warrior with a sickening thud.  
Jounouchi: 3700  
"I'll set one card and end."  
As the soldiers crouched down into defence due to the effect, Jounouchi threw down his next card.  
"I'll summon my marauding captain, allowing me to special summon my command knight."  
A thin warrior with a messy blonde hairdo, dressed in rusting iron armour, formed from the ground. Behind him, two delicate pale hands caressed his neck, revealing the female knight that also was summoned.  
"Now I'll equip my marauding captain with my lightning blade."  
The warrior side-stepped away from the woman, pulled a long, glowing, vermilion broadsword from a hilt on his right hip.  
"Now I'll equip command knight with big bang shot." Snapped Joey, throwing down the spell.  
The field around the woman burst up in fire, her face growing grim and dark, her arms covered in the power that had erupted around them.  
"Thanks to my card, Command Knight's attack becomes 2000, and whenever it attacks a monster in defence mode, the damage is done directly to your life points as the difference between statistics." Grinned the teenage duelist.  
Jounouchi pointed at Goblin Attack Force, and with a surge of fire and speed, it was mutilated with a series of flaming sword slashes. The lady raised her arms once more, and with an inferno of power, Domingo was thrown against the wall.  
Domingo: 2000  
"Now my Marauding Captain will attack you…"  
"Not so fast." Snapped Domingo, picking a card from his deck and placing it down on the field. The floor around them suddenly became icy glass, the fire disappearing, the air becoming cold. Jounouchi wished he wasn't wearing a T-shirt and jeans as he looked at the new playing field.  
"Thanks to my 'mirror of desire' trap, whenever an equip card does damage to me, I can activate this, stopping all damage to my life points and attacking you instead. Thanks to command knight, your captain has 1600 attack, meaning you'll go down to 2100 life points."  
Jounouchi gasped as his warrior's attack smashed against him, instead of his opponent.  
"Why… did it… do that…" Groaned Jounouchi, clasping his chest as a warm blood seeped from the fresh cut.  
"Due to the mirror of desire, it reflects the deepest passion of any card you play. Marauding Captain's greatest desire is to keep the world balanced, by fighting, which doesn't make much sense, but I'm not one to complain. And because your life points were higher than mine, marauding captain attacks you. Of course, that effect isn't the same with every monster, but you'll learn as we go along." Snapped the tall bulky duelist, drawing a card.  
"Now I'll remove my destroyed goblins from play to special summon my gigantes."  
The mirror released a torrent of silver liquid, forming into a bulky ogre that smashed open the roof of the hall, holding a tree trunk as if it were a penknife in his grasp.  
"Now I can use it's special effect, to destroy all magic and trap cards on your side of the field."  
"That isn't the effect of gigantes!" Snapped Jounouchi. "When it's summoned, it destroys ALL magic and trap cards."  
And then he saw the mirror of desire. (Author's note: I know that's not gigantes's real effect) and realised it was just another effect of the heart of the monster helping it.  
"Now I can summon another monster, so I'll take this berserk gorilla from my hand and summon it to the arena."  
Beside the gigantic earth creature appeared a significantly shorter primate, beating the muscular chest that was the only part of it's torso not covered in fur.  
"Now my berserk gorilla and Gigantes, destroy his Marauding Captain and Command Knight!"  
Jounouchi was winded as the two warriors were thrown against him, shattering apart as his life points clocked down by 600.  
Jounouchi: 1500 life points.  
"I'll set one card and end."  
Jounouchi stumbled up from where he had just fallen, picking another card from his deck, gasping for warm air and not getting any.  
"I'll activate polymerisation on the two cards in my hand, alligator sword and baby dragon, and then de-fuse them."  
The two spells formed on the field, only to negate each other, forming into the wyvern dressed in dark armour and the cute orange reptile with a sinister wry grin spread across it's face.  
"Now I'll use monster reborn, bringing back my command knight." Stated Jounouchi, activating his final spell.  
"So what? None of your monsters can destroy my gigantes or my gorilla."  
"I wasn't planning to attack with my monsters Domingo. Now, I'll tribute all three of them to summon my most powerful tribute monster."  
Jounouchi raised the card in the air, and suddenly, the glass cracked and shattered. The storm of shards rose around Jounouchi and Domingo, until they spiralled into one final crescendo in the sky, and created a tall warrior dressed in spice orange and yellow armour. His face was grim and stern, and around him crackled a circle of thunder. Lightning burst from the sky as Jounouchi smiled at his opponent, who was surprisingly calm.  
"Now my Gilford the Lightning is on the field, it destroys both your berserk gorilla and your Gigantes."  
The ring of thunder began to expand out, surrounding the entire arena floor, destroying the two monsters in a massive explosion of light and electricity.  
"You haven't won yet Mr. Katsuya, as thanks to my monsters being destroyed, like last time, diamond wall allows me to take two spell or trap cards from my deck or hand and play them to the field. So say hello to my ziggurat of ruby and my relic of sapphire."  
Everyone fell silent as the thunder ceased. The ground cracked open twice more, the first time around both Jounouchi and Domingo, sending them high into the air where the earth titan had smashed the ceiling open. The wall grew with them, as Domingo's face became shallow, shaded and sinister. The tower stopped growing, a final roof-top shrine being formed from the red material, creating a glittering arena for their final face off. As Jounouchi got ready to replay his attack, a glittering blue sphere, like an encased gem of the ocean itself, formed in front of it's owner. The clouds were flying past them, birds hooting above their heads. The stadium was certainly a dramatic one.  
"So you think that changes anything? Gilford, attack him now!"  
The wind howled in pain as the warrior burst through it, chasing over the slippery gemstone floor to attack Domingo, only to hit the face down card.  
"Temper, temper." Sniggered the malevolent duelist, flipping up his face down card.  
"Not mirror force!" Gasped Jounouchi as he saw the wall of clear glass build up and block the attack.  
"Foolish boy. Victor has blessed me with the power of the gem trinity, and in turn the deck to take down you, one of the most fearsome duelists in the history of the game."  
The blonde boy wasn't sure whether to take this as an insult or a compliment, and shrugged it off, setting a card and ending.  
"I'll activate the special ability of my sapphire relic." Announced Jounouchi's opponent, holding his hand over the spell card.  
"Which does?" Pouted Jounouchi, leaning back a bit.  
"Whenever I destroy one of your monsters, I'm allowed to special summon one monster of the same tribute amount from my deck."  
"That really doesn't impress me." Replied the student.  
"You realise Gilford required three tributes, correct?"  
Jounouchi thought that over in his head.  
Three star tributes? Aren't many of them…  
And then it hit him. He went pale, scrabbling through his deck, looking for the card he needed, if he had one. Domingo though, had already placed the card down, and with a shattering roar, the explosion of the tower, and a last scream, the duel was over.

Anzu was beginning to worry. Jounouchi still hadn't won, and he was better than Otogi. She felt the wall, only for it to shatter at her grasp. She screamed and fell back.  
"The game is over." Announced Johnny, setting up his duel disk.  
"What do you mean?" Rasped Anzu, turning to him.  
"I mean…"  
Johnny pointed at the sky, at the shattering shards of blue, red and white. Among them fell the bodies of Domingo and Jounouchi, both of their life points at 0.  
"How did that happen?" Gasped the young woman, watching with baited breath as they crashed through the stage in an explosion of gemstone, sawdust and splinters.  
"The power of god crushed their life for not being worthy."  
Anzu turned to her rival and saw a fierce look had appeared in his eyes. He walked over to Domingo, plucking cards from his deck, and placing them, shockingly, on air.  
"Your friend's life has been spared, but Domingo's has not been. That fool didn't expect Obelisk to do that to him… No one does, and only the true messiahs can."  
Anzu heard none of this, noticing Otogi had been knocked down by a shower of rubble and debris. She and Johnny were the only people left in the hall still standing.  
"Now, let us duel."

The three women looked at Pegasus from across the tablet, a look of pure malice in their eyes.  
"It's good to see you with us, of course. I'm sure you no doubt know our next visitor." Beamed Mr. Crawford, and a slab doorway opened up, similar to the one they had entered, to show Isis, misty eyed step over to them. She leaned over, dislodging the tauk from it's spot, and placed it around her neck, a feint glimmer of power erupting from the hollow crevices of the Horus eye.  
"Isis?" Stammered Mai, who edged towards her. As Mai tried to touch her team mate's shoulder, she felt a strange energy wind her as she was thrown back into a group of scientists.  
"Don't bother my dear, she can't hear you in this trance." Sighed Pegasus, embracing Isis around the neck and kissing her neck.  
"Wouldn't she recoil if I did that in real life? She didn't there, did she? Face it, she's possessed."  
Victor silently slipped into the door Isis had entered from for a reason none of them knew. The silent forms of Ryuzaki, Mokuba and Horus walked up.  
"Horus!" Gasped Corgi, throwing her arms around the lifeless body that stood before her. His mouth was slightly open, and he didn't very little, until he grasped her cardigan, throwing her away from him, as she cracked her head on the side of the sennen item tablet.  
"What the hell was that for?" Roared Vivian, picking him up by the scruff of his neck. As soon as she did, Mokuba and Ryuzaki stepped behind her, grabbing her shirt as she was dragged backwards by them, screaming in anger. She didn't have long to worry though, as Honda leapt forward, kicking away Mokuba and Ryuzaki with a roundhouse kick. It was then that the rod fell from Kaiba's grasp. Bakura still hadn't moved, still fondling the ring in his hands, and Pegasus gasped as he heard the sharp clatter on the floor as the rod hit against it, and Kaiba whirled Honda round.  
"Why the hell did you hit my brother, idiot?" Roared Kaiba, a few drops of spit splashing against Honda's face as he turned from the roaring man before him.  
"He's a lifeless body currently, Kaiba. He tried to attack Vivian. I wasn't precisely worrying about hitting someone with no heart, soul or spirit."  
Seto loosened his grip of Honda's shoulders, and for the first time, they saw the Kaiba Corporation CEO cry. It was slow to start with, a few tears slipping down his face to splatter on the floor. The scientists all stopped, as did Pegasus, as the young man fell, wailing, to the ground, pounding the earth with his fist.  
"Kaiba, I'm sorry…" Sighed Honda, making sure to eliminate the option it was something he had said.  
"Mokuba doesn't need to have been dragged into this. He merely tried to save Bakura. Why is he in this situation?" Roared Seto, turning to Pegasus.  
"To be frank Kaiba Boy, even if I could bring back his life, I couldn't. It wasn't my choice, it was Victor's. I merely got them from your mansion after we possessed you. Victor offered their lives to that urn over there, so he made them into puppets of his magic and left them to serve him. Horus, he did the same to many years ago."  
Kaiba looked at Pegasus, who was now also in tears.  
"How do you know that boy was effected?"  
Horus Fletcher was still standing still by the unconscious form of Corgi, no emotion on his face.  
"Because… he's my son…" Sobbed Pegasus.

Pierre LeBlanc and Ushebti Papyrus were tired of waiting. The door had been tempting them for the last hour now, and they still hadn't walked through it.  
Sod patience.  
Pierre swept around, his cloak billowing out behind him, as he swept through the door to the main atrium, or what he had been told was. Ushebti groaned, running a hand through her sandy blonde hair.  
"Why me…" She groaned, stepping into the hall.  
Neither of them expected to see the group that welcomed them. Well, maybe not welcomed, but was there before them, all the same. Pegasus J. Crawford, their team member, was wallowing about his family, while Seto Kaiba dried his own eyes. Mokuba Kaiba and Dinosaur Ryuzaki were both looking lifeless, standing towards a gigantic urn, almost like a cauldron, towards the end of the room. Vivian Wong and Hiroto Honda, two duelists that were mainly known for their second fiddle parts in the press story of Katsuya Jounouchi and Mai Valentine, were standing beside the knocked out form of the aforementioned Blonde press phenomenon. A young girl, Corgi McDougall, and her fiancée Horus Fletcher, both protégés of the Duel Monster game in Scotland, and recently in Japan, were both by a strange tablet they'd seen in textbooks at their various schools, the girl sprawled out on the stone floor, the boy a lifeless body, standing between Pegasus (who was now in a hysteric sobbing fit) and Corgi's still corpse. Behind the tablet, still and staring at the sennen ring in his hand, was Ryou Bakura, a little known duelist connected to Battle City and the accidents that had happened a few years ago, in connection with a strange occurrence at the Domino Museum. The two of them weren't precisely shocked, Victor's base wasn't known for being plain and bland, not least the people that came, but it was still surprising to see such contrasting faces in the same place. They couldn't help but just stand there, watching the absurd scene around them.

Honda couldn't take this anymore. They needed to get out. He was getting tired and dehydrated, and before long he would be in the same position as Corgi or Mai, collapsed on the floor. Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, he clicked on Jounouchi's number.  
"This phone is currently out of use. Please try again."  
Honda swore as he clicked on Anzu's number.  
"This phone is currently out of use. Please try again."  
Of course, he didn't know that both of their phones were lying broken in the hall, one in the ruins of a stage, the second in the ruins of a handbag.  
Honda felt like smashing the phone, and realised that he had to try one of the numbers he was sure wouldn't be busy. The phone rang, and he had to hold in a cry of relief when the quavering voice came from the other side.  
"Hello."  
"Hey there Espa." Grinned Honda.  
Honda didn't see Pegasus, stumbling over to his two team mates, and passing them a card key, whispering something into their ears as Ushebti nodded and the two of them walked over to the scientists.

"It's a damn good thing I'm rich." Snapped Siegfried, pushing the stick forward in the cockpit of his helicopter. The large army style chopper, bought from Kaiba Corporation at a recent auction, had been used many a time to carry people like Amelda and Ryuzaki around after having their souls stolen.  
There would have been a sense of déjà vu for any of the others who had been here, either unconscious or worried for the future for the earth, on their quest to find Paradise only a few years ago. Leon was sitting in the main hold, with Espa and his brothers, duelling in the confined space they did.  
As Jinzo (Espa had only just managed to get a second) obliterated Red Riding Hood with a ball of black lightning, they felt the helicopter descend to the ground, landing with a thud on the grass of the woody area they were now in.  
"Where did Honda say he was?" Sighed the pink haired duelist, holding a hand against his brow like a salute to shade his eyes from the non-existent sun as he tried to see where, if he was there, Honda was.  
"He said he was in the NightDuel HQ."  
"IN the HQ?" Sighed Leon, glad they had landed inside the impregnable gates.  
"Yep." Grinned Espa's oldest brother, as they looked at the main door, sure it was where their friend was.  
"Let's go." Snapped one of the younger Roba boys, sliding the door open as the others followed.

Anzu picked up her sixth card, looking at her hand with a fierce brow.  
"Seems you didn't pick the cards you needed dear peach."  
She blocked Johnny's taunts from her mind as she thought hard.  
"I'll summon toon gemini elf in attack mode, and set one card, ending my turn."  
A sparkling shower of stars fell from the sky, and from them, like a pop-up picture in a book, appeared two ladies, one a redhead, one a blonde, dressed in navy blue cat suits that stopped at their collars. They were embracing each other, and with a fierce glare, they made Johnny recoil a little.  
The dark duelist drew his sixth card, and smiled as he summon a monster.  
"My creature of choice is beautiful head-huntress, and then I'll activate my magic card."  
A woman in a long emerald kimono, with a matching colour hair tied back with a lotus hair-band, formed from the card in a shower of pastel pink petals, pulling a long katana from a hilt on her thigh. Behind her, a glowing light raced into her hands, forming a thick broad sword to match her chosen weapon of choice.  
"Thanks to my legendary sword of the bard, my beautiful head-huntress gains 500 attack, along with the ability to special summon one musical or female monster from my hand. So say hello to Sonic Maid!"  
The sword let off a gentle hum, and with a flash of green winds, a lady in a frock of a similar livery, with pale skin and a diadem of black onyx, holding a scythe marked with treble clefs, appeared on the field.  
"Now beautiful head-huntress, destroy her precious toon gemini!"  
The first warrior ran forward, slamming a sword into the skull of the cartoon. With a comical sound effect, the monster faded away.  
"Now my Sonic Maid, attack directly!"  
"Not so fast! Activate twinkle mirror."  
The warrior was only a few inches from Anzu, the scythe dangling above her head, ready to hit. But it had stopped moving. Johnny looked at his monster shatter apart, and then noticed another beautiful head-huntress, also with the same equipment card, emerge to the field, along with three copies.  
"My twinkle mirror can only be activated when a monster on my side of the field is destroyed before a direct attack. I can create clones of any monster on the field, one for each star of the destroyed monster, so I chose your female assassin."  
Johnny growled. He set a card and ended.  
"Now I draw a card, using the effect of sword of the bard to special summon four monsters thanks to tokens not counting as my monster zones."  
Anzu picked up her deck, searching through. She picked up her four monsters of choice and placed them down. A green elf in a flowing white cassock, with flowing strawberry blonde hair, a dark elf with midnight purple hair and a black robe on and copies of these two monsters appeared on the field, the green elves in defence, the dark ones in attack.  
"My dark elves have an attack of 2000, my mystical elves have a defence of 2000. And all of them shall lead to your demise Johnny, when I summon this monster."  
Anzu placed down a card, letting two tokens disappear from the field to summon a tall woman in gold plating with long flamboyant robes cloaking her scrawny form. In her hands, balls of energy blazed into action as she stared at Johnny with cold, heartless spheres for eyes.  
"My Cosmo queen has an attack of 2900, almost as strong as the legendary blue eyes." Snapped Anzu, throwing her arm out to signal her creatures to attack. The first dark elf slammed a feline claw adorned hand into the throat of the beautiful head-huntress, the second aiming for Johnny.  
"Activate my face down card, charming disarm."  
As Cosmo queen and the two remaining tokens aimed at Johnny with the dark elf, their attacks dropped, leaving Johnny with 950 life points, which clocked down to 550 after the damage from head-huntress being destroyed added to it.  
"My charming disarm stops all female creatures in their path with halved attacks, leaving me with a fraction of my life to keep playing with."  
"Fine then. I'll end." Sighed Anzu, placing a card down to protect her now permanently weakened lady creatures. As she looked back at Johnny, she knew something had been drawn.  
"This is it… Yeah baby…" Sighed Johnny, placing the card down. Around them from holes in the ground, the diamonds threw up into the air. Each one was marked with a different musical note, ranging from low ones to high ones, catching their essence on the chilly wind that played a deadly melody to any, like Anzu, who weren't dressed warmly.  
"Victor rewards his helpers handsomely… and when I paid my life as a dancer up to join him, he gave me a card to carry on my love for music. Every turn, another of my notes will be played, and when all of them are…"  
"I lose?" Groaned Anzu, looking around her and what were soon to be her deathbed if she didn't act fast.  
"Indeed. You've caught on rather well for a bimbo." Chuckled Johnny, swinging his ape-like arms to and fro as he removed some cards from his cemetery. Around them, two enormous light shows erupted, both different shades of neon green.  
"My wall allowed me to remove my head huntress and sonic maid to specially bring out two more musical cards from my deck. So welcome my Sound Barrier and pop band stage."  
This certainly wasn't meant to be a greeting. The two of them watched as a fierce howl of wind built up as a shield around Johnny, making his laughter hollow, as if he were talking through a loo roll tube. Behind him, drums played, a guitar started, and before Anzu could stop it, a quartet of young women in school uniforms decorated in pastel red, blue, green and purple emerged, singing a distant song.  
"What in the world…"  
"Thanks to my pop band stage, I get to special summon four 'bishoujo J-pop performers' in ATK mode, Performer Red, Performer Green, Performer Blue and Performer Purple.  
The four of them leapt down, each one with an attack of 1600. They stood, glaring at Anzu who cowered away from them.  
"Thanks to my sound barrier, any battle damage done to me doesn't happen. And not only that, my creatures gain 500 attack when inside this ring.  
Anzu cursed the imprisoning circle, wanting to escape, and then noticed the four monsters pointing at her creatures.  
"Now Performer Red, destroy her precious beautiful head huntress token, and the same from you, Green."  
As the other two Performers were ordered to attack Cosmo queen and one of the elves, Anzu looking at her left over 2000 life points. The four bodies were about to shatter when…  
"Activate holy barrier mirror force!" Snapped Anzu, throwing the card forward to alleviate the attack. The glass shattered back in the faces of the girls, as they just fell back, not being destroyed.  
"What in the…"  
"Silly girl. Did you think one of Victor's cards would be so easily destroyed? Heavens no! I merely have to pay half my life points and I'm spared."  
Anzu saw four of the notes clock down out of the ten up around her.  
"And due to me making four attacks, four notes are activated."  
She was shocked to see a ring of the activated notes surrounding her, a heavy wind picking up about her person.  
"Just six more attacks…" Moaned Johnny, leaning against the far wall as his life points fell to 275.  
"Draw." Answered she, noticing she still had all her monsters up for use.  
"I'll switch all my monsters to defence and set one monster and once other card." Stated Anzu, placing them down.  
"I draw." Stated Johnny, pulling another card from the deck.  
"I'll activate polymerisation on the lady of faith and witch of the black forest in my hand to special summon musician king in attack mode, and then I'll play water omotics."  
A naked woman holding a small jar of water over one shoulder appeared beside a man in tight leather trousers and a shrinking white shirt, with a large guitar painted black and flaming strung around his neck. A mohawk of thick blonde hair drooped over one of his eyes as he strummed a high pitched note.  
"Now my red and blue performers will destroy your two elves, while the other two destroy the tokens."  
The monsters shattered as Anzu breathed a sigh of relief that her life points were safe.  
"And then Musician King and Water Omotics, destroy Cosmo Queen and then water omotics will destroy a mystical elf, as thanks to the cards, they all have an attack of 3000 now."  
Anzu drew a card as his turn ended. She needed to win, to save all of them…  
"I activate card of sanctity." She declared.  
"And now I summon king mokey mokey by discarding three mokey mokey in my hand and using polymerisation. Then I'll destroy it to special summon all three onto the field."  
The three rectangular angels emerged, each with neutral expressions spread across their faces.  
"Now I'll summon fire princess in attack mode."  
A surge of fire burst from the ground, a gothic young lady dressed in black and blood red robes formed from the ground, holding a worn wooden staff at arms length.  
"And finally, I'll activate my pot of greed, drawing another two cards."  
She saw the images of Jounouchi, Shizuka, Otogi and Yugi in her mind as she pulled the last two cards she would need from the deck.  
"I'll activate mokey mokey smackdown, and because of this card, my mystik wok will be used on one of them, and the other two mokey mokeys go up to 3000 attack."  
"Is that your final pathetic move? To destroy me with those square sprites?"  
"Not so fast. You've already lost."  
Johnny saw his life points were 0 and then looked at Fire Princess. He swore as the wall enclosed him, the stage breaking down, the shield deafening him. Anzu heard a sickening crack from inside the minute ring as the diamonds fell apart, and saw Johnny was now just a mangled body.

Espa had left his brothers outside to guard the main doorway and the helicopter as he, Siegfried and Leon had headed down into the main chamber. The staircase had an ominous presence about it, and with every step, more cold sweat grew on their brows, more tension built up in their minds.  
The doorway was just a thick slab of rock, but it was impossible to open.  
"Oh for god's sake…" Sighed Leon after the umpteenth time of trying to wrench it apart. Siegfriend and Espa were fiddling with their duel disks in the background as Leon went into a fit of anger on the entrance.  
"Stand back Leon." Snapped Siegfried as he stood up, holding his duel disk up in front of the slab. The younger sibling of the pink haired man obliged, stepping back for a minute as the prism projectors whirred into life.  
"I summon Valkyrie Brunhilde!"  
The earth shattered at the force of the horse emerging from the ground, the slender, blue haired woman emerging, holding her spear erect and proud. In a few seconds, she had rammed down the door in a show of sheer brutality.  
"You'd expect a duelling society to need you to modify rival products to open the door." Groaned Siegfriend, stepping through, ignoring the exasperated expressions on his comrade's faces.

Honda had never been more happy to see Siegfried in his entire life. As they stepped beside Bakura, lit in the flaming brazier's light from the doorway, the three of them looked like a true team. It was Vivian who spoke first.  
"Have you come to save us?"  
"We have indeed." Smirked Leon, giving her the 'v' for victory sign as a show of his friendship. She remembered him from Kaiba Grand Prix almost instantly, not least for his sudden swap in attitudes from his bookish ways at the blue eyes dome.  
"So, what's the drill here?"  
Siegfried stepped in front of Bakura and looked into his deep blank eyes. He wasn't moving anywhere soon.  
"What's wrong with this guy?"  
"It's the ring… the sennen ring…" Groaned Pegasus, stopping his constant sobbing as he stumbled over to Pierre and Ushebti. Espa gave a shrill whistle on the small pennywhistle tied around his neck, and in a few minutes, all the brothers had made their way down the staircase to meet them there.  
"Take Corgi and Miss Valentine to the helicopter, and Leon, go take Horus, quickly now."  
One of the older boys and one of the middle aged ones picked up the unconcious bodies, as Leon lead the lifeless form of Mr. Fletcher through the doorway.  
"Now all we have to do is escort Bakura out and we should be done…" Sighed Siegfried. Seto walked up to him, holding the hands of Ryuzaki and Mokuba, ready to lead them out.  
"These two also need to be taken out quickly."  
The last two brothers lead them out up the stairwell, as Kaiba glared into the eyes of his company rival. For once, they were working as a team.  
"Where in the world do you think you're going?" Roared Pegasus as he turned around with his team mates. The three of them had wicked expressions spread across their faces, and Honda realised the two of them must also be mind puppets.  
"What do you mean? We're getting the hell out of here!"  
"Oh no you don't." Snapped Pierre, drawing his duel disk, as did the other two.  
"What is this? Some kid of joke? We need to take all those people back to their homes idiot!" Roared Espa, being held back by Seto.  
"Easy there kid."  
"Oh no, you aren't going anywhere easily. Seto, you need to stay for the rod, and what about Isis and Bakura? You aren't going to leave them here!" Moaned Pegasus, flicking back a stray lock of hair.  
"Just shut the hell up you ranting loon!" Snapped Siegfried, drawing his duel disk. He'd seen enough in his short time here. Kaiba nodded, snapping his deck and disk onto his arm. Vivian followed suit, and the three of them got ready to duel.  
Honda and Espa looked at each other, and without hesitation, they swept Bakura and Isis into their arms and carried them out as an iron panel closed in the broken down doorway behind them. It was then the scientists began to flee from the area, leaving everything open to be destroyed as a red light burst on around the hall, a siren beeping madly for a few seconds before being replaced by a dull female voice.  
"System self destruct in twenty minutes."  
Pegasus saw a few remaining scientists carrying away the boxes, some of them carrying away the ushebti tablet, lifting up the rod carefully and throwing it back into the cast before anything could happen. The tablet was also moved out, the only thing now left in the room being the computer system and the urn.  
"You'd better get duelling Kaiba Boy."

Bakura and Isis seemed to awaken a bit as they reached fresh air, and the Egyptian lady seemed to have changed very little. Bakura however, was still silent, more pale than ever, black rings forming under his tired eyes. Honda sat next to him, holding an arm around his shoulders, trying to look like a friend when he wanted Bakura to notice it was more than that. They had never finished their talk back at their hospital, Bakura hadn't even been fully cured, when they were dragged out by a possessed Kaiba.  
Espa put down the phone in the main cabin. They had to leave. Now. He could hear Mai and Corgi stirring behind him as the helicopter burst off into the night sky, floating over the river that had been the last sighting of Malik and Rishid.  
Isis dabbed a tear from her eye, remembering what she had seen with the tauk in her grasp. She pondered for a second what Bakura was seeing, but stopped after he began to stare at her. Bakura wasn't seeing anything. He was at a crossroad between ecstasy Honda was holding him and anger that the ring had been in his grasp so long. But he wouldn't let it go again, oh no…  
Even if Pegasus was coming for Isis, him and Yugi because of it.

Yugi had finally began to wake in the car home as Anzu took the car keys from the band caravan Otogi had been in. She had already left Shizuka and Jounouchi in the worried grasp of their mother, and Otogi and the band were now at the Domino hospital. It was her and Yugi. Alone. In a trailer. And she had to be driving…  
Kame Game had come up, and she stopped the car, looking into the alley beside it, where it had all began, and become more than two boy's perversion.  
Sugoroku raced out in his pyjamas and night cap, and swept Yugi into his aging arms, somehow carrying the young boy into the house. Anzu waved goodbye as he stepped out, getting ready for the short walk to her apartment a few blocks down. The night was just as cold as when Corgi had been cycling through it merely a few hours before, and Anzu spent her time looking at her deck a bit more to try and distract herself from the cold.  
Her next stop before she turned to her flat would be the Domino Hospital. Maybe she could check on Otogi. She assumed that Jounouchi and Shizuka had probably been brought over as well, as she saw Ms. Katsuya's car in the outside car park. She shivered a little, feeling her hair stand on end. But it wasn't because of the cold. In fact, the grass around her on the small patches beside the road was beginning to stand erect too, albeit in a slight swirling pattern. It took her only a few seconds to look into the sky, and see the Kaiba Corporation Helicopter land down next to the Katsuya car.

Isis stumbled out of the main cargo hold, falling into the arms of Anzu, who had been waiting for them. Doctors had rushed out at the sound of the helicopter blades, and already stretchers were carrying away Mai (much to Anzu's surprise,) Corgi, Ryuzaki, Horus, Mokuba and also Bakura into the hospital. They were certainly getting a lot of casualties tonight. The five Roba brothers, Leon Von Schrieder and Honda stepped out, but no Espa. No Siegfried (shocking, letting Leon out on his own in such a rough neighbourhood. Germans…) and most shocking of all, no Kaiba. Even if it was owned by Siegfried, the helicopter still was Kaiba Corporation, and Mokuba had been there. Would Seto sense Mokuba had been in trouble? Isis had now stopped muttering into Anzu's shoulder, and was speedily recounting the whole night, with Honda aiding her in the prologue to her involvement. Anzu couldn't believe any of it. In the same night, three of her friends had been held at gunpoint by Pegasus and Victor, four more sent to hospital or home due to injuries from some strange members of NightDuel, one of the gods had appeared, the school auditorium had been destroyed, and a series of strange cards had been released. The only real consolation was, as she checked her mobile phone's internet connection, that eight teams had now gathered a full set of key cards, including her own. The teams that had got through each had their names written in large red letters.

GOLD CARD TEAMS:

Yugi  
Jounouchi Gets through  
Anzu

Honda  
Otogi Gets through  
Shizuka

Seto  
Mokuba Gets through  
Rebecca

Siegfried Von Schrieder  
Leon Von Schrieder  
Espa Roba

Mai  
IsisGets through  
Vivian

Varon  
Amelda  
Raphael

Ryuzaki  
Haga  
GURU

Victor  
Bandit Keith Gets through  
Mako

Malik  
RishidGets through  
Umbra

Lumis  
Pandora  
Catherine

Sugoroku  
Prof. Hawkins  
Mind DollGets through

Panik  
BakuraGets through  
Bonz

She was shocked that in one day, many of the teams had gathered enough cards, especially that Panik and Bonz had won without Bakura seven times. Anzu of course, had gathered up all of the sennen cards Victor had given his cronies, handing them to Otogi and herself for spectacular wins. She may be caring, but also a winner at heart.  
A message appeared on the screen.  
ALL TEAMS THAT DID NOT QUALIFY WILL PLAY IN A LOSER BRACKET INSIDE THE DOMINO MALL.  
At least Siegfried's team hadn't forfeited a chance for more cards for nothing…

"Kaiba Boy, did you really believe that your duel disks stand a chance against us?"  
"I could ask you the same question." He replied in an arrogant voice. Pegasus chuckled, throwing his hand out, letting a golden energy ripple across the pinstripe sleeve.  
"Boy, in a Yami No Game, duel disks are a thing of the past."  
His curtain of hair flew up, the eye releasing even more energy, pulsating through his other arm. His duel disk shattered into pieces, his deck stayed firmly in place. The other five were far more shocked to see this occurrence happen to their own disks, only to see a new design take it's place. Kaiba gasped as he realised what the new stone duel disk was.  
"Take a look at your precious Dia Danks, the sources of power that will make or break you, just like the games of darkness many millennia ago." Smirked Ushebti, holding up a blue print of the disk with a deck slot modification.  
"Where are the life points and the hologram projectors?"  
Vivian kept feeling her new duel disk, hoping to find something made out of holo technology or LCD displays somewhere.  
"In a game of Ka, you need neither. In your deck, you only have magic and traps. In your tablet selection, you have every monster in your deck. You can summon as many as you want to attack with, as there is no turn based system here. We shall each choose one monster to start with, summoning it." Stated Pegasus, as each of them found their monsters in a separate slot, picking out one. As they placed the card into the side of the crude feather designs on the disk, the cards appeared as stone carvings on the slabs of the floor beneath them, emerging onto the field as real creatures of magic.  
"My chosen monster was Mobius the Frost Monarch." Announced Pierre, showing the grand man in periwinkle and silver armour emerge on the field, hands glowing with a frosty energy.  
"My chosen monster was Relinquished." Announced Pegasus, holding up the card and slotting it into the disk.  
"Mine is my Horus lv8."  
Ushebti watched as her gigantic pewter behemoth emerged, cerulean flames licking around the artificial thighs of the beast.  
"Mine is my dragon lady." Announced Vivian, placing down the card to allow the maroon-clad lady to emerge, two glowing blades held loosely in her lax grip. Kaiba and Siegfried played their monsters at the same moment.  
"Valkyrie Sovite and Blue Eyes White Dragon! Emerge now!"  
The grand monsters appeared on the field, one an incredibly elegant young lady, the other a powerful tyrant with the power to kill almost anything.  
"Due to my valkyrie's special ability, I can destroy one monster on the field. So I'm going to choose your precious Horus." Announced Siegfried, his monster leaping at the dragon with a fierce gleam in her eye. The dragon leapt out the way, or more correctly flew, slamming a heavy wing against the roof as it spiralled back down for an assault against the lady on horseback. As it flew forwards, it was stopped by Blue Eyes, which slammed a thick tail against the skull of the dragoon opponent. The valkyrie raced over to relinquished, and swiftly attacked it, only to see the sword cut dragon lady to his surprise.  
"My relinquished absorbed Dragon Lady, making it more powerful than you could have imagined." Smirked Pegasus, letting his beast fire a blast of energy at the warrior. Siegfried covered his eyes as his monster was destroyed, the tablet shattering. Instead of a meagre life point drop from this far away, he felt a piece of heart ripped away as he knelt before the pressure of his opponent. Kaiba looked at Vivian, who nodded, and he lead his control of blue eyes white dragon over to relinquished, which shattered in a storm of midnight blue leathery skin. Pegasus roared as he sunk to the floor at the same height as Siegfried, and both of them clambered up to continue the assault. Pegasus was even more shocked to see, somehow, Dragon Lady had survived.  
"My giant trunade allowed me to return dragon lady to my field Pegasus, you should know that." Grinned Vivian, showing the tablet ceasing the windstorm it had released.  
"My next Ka is Thousand Eyes Restrict." Snapped Pegasus, placing down his next ka, looking at the five cards he had in hand.  
"And then I'll activate my toon mask, taking a clone of blue eyes and making it a cartoon beast."  
A small Frankenstein face clasped onto the dragon, and with a zap of lightning a smaller form of the behemoth had emerged beside Pegasus.  
"Now my toon dragon will attack you Kaiba Boy."  
Pegasus clenched his heart as the dragon pounded against his owner's chest to launch the attack, firing against Seto, who roared in immense pain.  
"I'll activate my sword of dragon soul, giving my dragon lady a power up for every dragon on the field."  
Vivian commanded her warrior to destroy blue eyes toon as the real blue eyes raced against Horus, firing blasts of blue and red energy that shook the walls and broke the stones away, falling into the giant urn that hissed away menacingly.  
"Now I'll summon my ultimate dragon ka, and with a power higher than Horus, it can easily defeat your puny armoured lizard." Announced Kaiba as Ushebti gasped as her ka exploded in a shower of mana, leaving her defenceless for a second as she got another ka out.  
"Now my Valkyrie Brunhilde, attack her directly!" Announced Siegfried as he placed down his second ka. Ushebti was thrown back by the blast of the spear, as she slammed the next card into the slot, which emerged in a shower of golden skulls.  
"My spirit of the pharaoh will destroy your pathetic dragon lady!"  
The grand warrior, dressed in gold armour with wild flowing brown hair escaping from the mask that covered his face, attacked the female paladin with a sickening crunch. The sword clasped against the golden skull shield, and then…  
"My beasts of the underworld, destroy her sword!"  
As Vivian saw Ushebti mutter her command, she also noticed three or four small skeleton priests crawl from the earth below her, dragging the sword back down with them. Vivian's face was in a state of horror.  
The dead… they didn't help me…  
Dragon Lady was destroyed with a menacing crack of bones, and Vivian had to clasp her chest, as well as her burning eyes, now streaming with tears. She pulled a second monster out and played it, and all that appeared was a master kyonshee.  
"What do you think you're doing Viv?" Roared Siegfried, knowing she could play better than this. What had that beast done to her? Did she have some problem with dead bodies? Whatever it was, it had phased her.

"Vivian… I'm sure your parent's bodies shall help you even in the afterlife…"

The young Chinese duelist heard the village Witch's words played over and over in her mind. The one chance she had of them helping, they hadn't. She didn't care that reaper on the nightmare, Blue Eyes Toon Dragon and Mobius had just been destroyed in a single blast of Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. She didn't care that Kaiba had let his dragon be a target of Thousand Eyes so that he could use his switch card to swap it with Vorse Raider to defeat Pegasus's ka. All she could see were the hollow eyes of her mother and father, their brittle limbs and sunken faces moaning for help as she was sat out on the dusty veranda, pinned down by Dr. Gracious…

The alarm had now penetrated the sphere of black light that surrounded them, stating it had one minute left to go. Pegasus, Pierre and Ushebti were all collapsed on the floor; Vivian was in a similar state, sobbing her eyes out as Blue Eyes Ultimate reared up for a final assault. As the blasts grew in the titan's maw, the black wall cut out. The darkness roared into a tornado beside them, and from it emerged Victor with a stern look on his face. His purple suit was ruffled, his shirt stained with sweat. His tie was undone, hung limp around his neck to make some sort of attempt at a decent appearance.  
"You have served your purposes children." Snapped Victor, holding his arms out. Kaiba felt a warm tug at his navel, like Corgi had felt earlier, and saw he, Siegfried, Vivian, Ushebti and Pierre were now elevated in the air from azure columns of light erupting from the earth. With a sudden flash, the five of them were in the lobby of Domino General Hospital.

Pegasus's eyes had grown shallow. He had lost to Kaiba again. His three ka lay limp on the ground, Manga Ryu Ran and Toon Summoned Skull falling out of the left over slot, along with his deck. His face was more pale than usual, his hair thrown back beside his shoulders.  
"Why did you stop me…" Sighed Pegasus, looking at the hammer shot in his hand.  
"You've served your purpose well, fulfilling the ka level of the sennen eye, kidnapping the children until they had given their ka energy levels to the items… I needed you only to do one final task. To forget of your son and kill Seto. After all, I tried to plant those thoughts of Seto attacking him into your brain, didn't I?"  
Pegasus didn't know what he was on about. Seto was there, with Horus, but was it the same reason? Maybe Victor had destroyed his mind when he tried to tamper with it.  
"Mr. Crawford, I have known you for… what is it? Five years now? Remember the prophecy? The deaths? The pain you felt? It was all me."  
Pegasus wasn't moving. He was praying on the ground as the count fell to 30 seconds.  
"Even Cecilia, Pegasus Joseph Crawford. I even killed Cecilia."  
Pegasus had now looked up at Victor, who's face was calm and slightly pale, as if, for once, he felt some guilt.  
"You…" Moaned Pegasus, the tears now streaking down his cheeks faster than ever. Coming from the sennen eye, they had a faint hue of gold.  
"Yes Pegasus. Due to your carelessness and of my short knowledge of the keepers of the items, I thought the only way to finally get the ka I needed for the eye was through killing Cecilia."  
"Yes you wanted to bring her back if I joined?"  
"I would never have been able to do such a thing you child. Cecilia is gone for eternity, sealed in the realms we dream to know about. Your son doesn't know you are alive, and he never will. For this shall be your grave."  
The hall was silent except for the blurting alarm.  
"10 seconds."  
"YOU SON OF A…"  
Pegasus leapt up, biting Victor's arm as he threw the other one around the man's neck, crushing it slowly in his quavering, yet strong, grip. In a matter of seconds, Victor had twisted Pegasus to the floor, plucked the eye from his bloody face, kicked him in the groin and thrown in the item into the urn.  
"Self destruct imminent."  
"Goodbye Mr. Crawford." Chuckled Victor, as he watched the hall blow up in a spectacular fashion. The urn disappeared in a similar blast of blue light to their other base, Pegasus wailed one final cry of angst, and Victor was lost into the plumes of smoke and fire that erupted around the once magnificent hall.

The news helicopter that flew over the remains of NightDuel's Japanese base was shocked at the simplicity of the destruction. The pilot was also shocked by the report that Pegasus had died in the explosion. He was shocked to learn that Horus Fletcher, a young silver card holder in the tournament, was now the ruler of Industrial Illusions. The one thing that would have shocked him most though, if he had come half an hour earlier, was the form of Victor, not at all harmed, wondering into the darkness of the night.


End file.
